Make Shift Family
by Lolly4Holly
Summary: GSR. Moving back to Las Vegas after a journey across the US seems like a simple task, but it turns into a daunting one when a black cloud returns to Grissom's head. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1 - In the beginning

**Make Shift Family**

**Author: **Lolly4Holly

**Rated:** K+

**Pairings:** GSR - Gil Grissom & Sara Sidle (Might be some Vartann/Catherine further on)

**Summary:** Moving back to Las Vegas after a journey across the US seems like a simple task, but it turns into a daunting one when a black cloud returns to Grissom's head.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own CSI or any of its characters. This is purely fictional, for entertainment purposes, only.

**Author's Note:** I wrote a series of one-shots for GSR a while ago, that weren't really going anywhere, so I decided to piece them together for this short story. I've never really posted any of my long GSR fictions before, mostly because it's so popular, and I didn't want to disappoint any fans who have been reading GSR for so long. But this is one of my favourite stories of GSR that I've completed.

Hope you like it, please let me know what you think.

* * *

**Chapter One - In The Beginning**

"One... two... three... testing... testing," Clicking the microphone in front of him off, the man gave his colleagues the thumbs up, relieved that things for the lecture were coming along swimmingly. He hadn't given a lecture in over six years now, but he was eager to get back on the saddle or the horse, whatever it was that people said nowadays.

He stepped down from the stand with his notes in his hand, double checking that they were all in order. His shaky hands didn't make it very easy to turn the pages, but he knew that was just a temporary side effect of his nervousness. He knew that as soon as he started talking to the students, it would immediately subside, as he would finally be doing what he always wanted, again.

Stopping at the base of the stage, he spotted a perky young co-ed sat in the front row, with one of his books in her hands. She chewed the end of her blue pen between her perfectly painted lips, completely unaware of the male attention that she was attracting.

Her beautifully curved legs were barely tucked into a pair of denim shorts, while the top half of her was scarcely covered in a pink blouse that looked about two sizes too small for her, but it definitely worked in her favour.

Knowing that she'd never even look twice at a guy like him, the man left her to it, allowing the much younger, more good looking males to take a chance with her. But it was already too late, he was completely smitten after just one look. He hadn't even seen the colour of her eyes or heard her speak yet, but that didn't matter.

She was the most amazing woman he had ever seen.

"Doctor Grissom," A man flagged him down, holding a chart of some kind in his hands. "I've seated the board members in the front row. Students can sit where ever they like, but we'll need to reserve a couple of seats for the Chairman and the college dean..."

While Grissom was going over the details with him, the young lady climbed to her feet, waiting for him to finish. She had heard the other man call him, Doctor Grissom, which immediately peeked her interest. He was the whole reason she was even here, rather than at the kegger her boyfriend had invited her to.

"Okay, thank you, Doctor Grissom." The man quickly left his side, hurrying through the rows of seats to relay the details to the college dean.

"Hi." The young woman stepped forwards, startling the older man as he glanced up from his notes in his hands. "Sorry for the intrusion, Doctor Grissom, but I just had to meet you in person. My name is Sara Sidle."

* * *

"It was MOMMY!" The child jumped out from under her covers with excitement, interrupting her father's story for the fifth time. "I knew it would be. Mommy is beautiful. Did you get married to her right away? Did she wear a big princess wedding dress? Did Mommy's mommy go there?"

Her father immediately chuckled, pressing a kiss to his little girl's delicate forehead. "That story is for another night, my dear. C'mon, time for bed. Mommy will be back from work any moment, do you want me to get into trouble because you're still awake?"

"No." She quickly crawled back to her pillow, diving under the covers. "I will tell Mommy that I wanted to stay up. She won't be mad. Can you finish the story?"

"You think so, huh? I don't know, your Mommy will probably get mad at me anyway." He playfully tickled her sides, making her adorably giggle and squirm beneath her covers. "I will finish the story another night. You could always ask your mother about it, she probably remembers it better than me, anyway."

"O-kay." She reluctantly agreed, dropping her head back against her pillow. "Did you at least have dinner with Mommy? Did you ask her?"

"Actually, she asked me. Now, you have to go to sleep, young lady."

"Ohh." His daughter complained. "Night night, Daddy."

"Good night, my dear." Tucking the covers up to her chest, her father pressed a kiss to her forehead, giving her a smile as he climbed to his feet. "I'll tell Mommy to come kiss you when she gets in."

Giving her a wave, he clicked off the light, pulling the door slightly, so the light from the hallway didn't disturb her. He made his way back to his office down the hall, hearing his cell vibrating against the wooden desk as he approached.

"Gil Grissom . . . Hello, Catherine." He smiled into his cell, dropping into his seat behind his desk. "How goes things at the lab?" He hadn't been back to the crime lab in Las Vegas, for just over five years now. Since their move back, he had been meaning to stop by and visit the old team, but his current work was now getting in the way of that. "Yeah, I heard that it's being refurbished. I guess we're a little out dated. Good thing I did leave when I did actually. Sara's bought one of those tablet thingys. My own daughter has to show me the ropes, just so I can stop it from bleeping every ten seconds."

"Da-ddy." A little voice called from down the hall.

"Speaking of, I gotta go. Yeah, I promise to stop by soon. Say 'hi' to the team for me." Grissom quickly set his cell down, hurrying down the hallway towards his daughter's bedroom door. He eased the door open slightly, giving his demanding five year old a smile. "Yes, my dear."

"Could I have a glass of water?" She sweetly requested, giving him an innocent smile. "Please."

Grissom gave her a nod, pulling the door to, before he made his way towards the stairs. He hurried down them, hearing a car rolling across the stones in the driveway. It was really dark out, but it was definitely his wife. He recognised the way the car pulled in immediately. She always pulled in a specific way, cutting the lights and the engine, before she opened the car door. She didn't like the dark, so as soon as the engine was off, she opened the door to flood her car with light again.

Sara retrieved her bag from the passenger seat, checking to see if anything else was in the car, before she climbed out. She locked it up, turning for the front door, just as her husband pulled it open. "This is a surprise. Were you waiting for me?" Sara licked her lips, before the man greeted her with a tender kiss. "Mmm, you should do that more often."

"Kiss you?" He gave her a quizzical look.

"Greet me at the door." She chuckled, dropping her bag and keys on one of the unpacked boxes at the door, so she had her hands free to hug him. "Usually I have to find you in the house to kiss me after a long day. This makes a nice change though."

"Da-ddy!" The little voice shouted down the stairs to him this time.

"Is she still up?" Sara pulled away from her husband, making her way towards the stairs. "It's just gone ten, Gil. She went to bed at midnight last night, these late nights aren't good for her development. If she tells this to her new teachers at kindergarten, they're going to think we're horrible parents."

"She won't tell anyone, and no they won't."

Sara sighed softly, shaking her head at him. "I suppose you fed her instant noodles for dinner again?"

"No." He objected, pointing to the pizza boxes sat on the table. "I realise that it looks bad, but we've only been here for two days. She's too excited and hyperactive at night to sleep, and we haven't got the kitchen fixed up yet. We really should have checked that out, before we signed the rental agreement. I think something died in that fridge."

"I hope you didn't tell her that." Sara warned him, removing her jacket and shoes at the bottom of the stairs, before she hurried up them to check on her daughter. She approached her bedroom door, noticing that all the boxes for her room were gone. She hoped her husband hadn't stuffed them inside her room, as she might bump into them with the lights off.

Stepping inside, she realised that the boxes hadn't been stuffed inside, but they had been unpacked. All of her clothes had been hung on individual hangers, and placed in the wardrobe. Some of her toys had been emptied into the storage boxes, while the others were on the shelves that her husband had just put up too.

"Mommy." Her little girl excitedly cheered, climbing out from under her covers as the door opened.

"Hello." Sara took a seat on her 'Hello Kitty' bed spread, hugging her little girl tightly in her embrace. She never thought in a million years that her life would pan out the way it had. She thought for sure that she would never get married, and she was never exactly the kind of person that adored kids or liked being around them either.

Now that she had both though, she never wanted to let them go.

"What's this?"

Feeling something cold against her chest, Sara pulled back slightly, seeing a multicoloured beaded necklace around her daughter's neck. She immediately rolled her eyes, wishing that Grissom would be more careful where their daughter was concerned. She didn't want her to choke to death in the middle of the night, but he didn't seem at all concerned about their daughter's well being.

"Where'd you get it?" She lifted it off her head, taking a look at all the different sized beads.

"Nana Bets." The little girl brushed her finger across the beads on one side of the necklace, showing her mother the beads that had initials on them. "Look, Mommy. G.S.R. Gilbert, Sara and Rosaline. That's Daddy, you and me." She smiled at her mother, receiving a proud smile in response.

"It's very good." Sara set it down on her nightstand for safe keeping. "Now, it's time for you to go to sleep, missy. It's way past your bed time." She lifted her back into her bed, gently tucking her in under her covers. "I love you, sweetie. Good night."

"I love you too, Mommy." Rosaline slid lower on her bed, getting herself comfortable, before she closed her eyes.

Her mother stayed with her a moment to watch over her, before she finally left to give her husband a scolding. She thought that after five years of having a child, he would start getting used to her simple routines and learn how to keep her safe, even when she was sleeping, but it never seemed to sink in.

"She's five years old, Grissom. She needs her sleep. Is it really that difficult for you to put a little girl to bed? You used to run a whole lab, for gods sake. And as for the food, you know I don't want any of that junk in her system."

Grissom knew that he was in trouble when his wife used his surname, he just didn't realise how much, until he was left with a pillow and blanket, sleeping on the sofa for the second night in a row.

* * *

**There's the first chapter, let me know what you thought. Thanks for reading!**

**~ Holly**


	2. Chapter 2 - Tell Me A Story

**Chapter Two - Tell Me A Story**

Attacking another box with the pair of scissors in her hands, Sara sighed, as it was just another box full of kitchen pots and pans. She really wished that her husband could have labelled the boxes correctly when they were moving out of their little apartment. He seemed to have packed all the boxes up, taped them up, then attempted to label them. She had found 'Sara's stuff' box three times, either containing his insect collections or kitchen things.

"Mommy, what's this?" Rosa climbed to her feet, holding a snow globe in her hands as she made her way towards her mother.

"Ooh, careful." Sara sat her down beside her on the kitchen floor, giving the snow globe a gentle shake. "Your Daddy bought this for me on our second honeymoon, a long time after we got married. It's the Eifel tower in France. This was about... three years before you were born." She handed it back to her daughter, smiling as she curiously studied it.

"How long were you married, before I was born?" She curiously asked her mother.

"Before you were born?" Sara thought about it a moment, trying to remember how long she had even been married to her husband, Grissom. "Well, we've been married around about eleven years now. So, we were married for about six years when you came along. We had been waiting for you for a long time though."

"Tell me the story again, Mommy."

"You hear the story practically every day." Sara giggled softly, brushing her daughter's hair back behind her ears. She received her daughter's familiar pout in response, making her motherly side give into her again. "Okay. Well, it was Christmas Eve. At five in the morning, your father was shaking me awake, telling me I had wet the bed."

"But it was your waters breaking." Her daughter announced.

"Are you going to let me tell the story?" She playfully tickled the little girl's sides, eliciting a giggle from her throat. "I swept back the covers to make sure, realising that it was my waters breaking..."

* * *

Grissom immediately leapt out of bed, after the confirmation, beginning to panic. "You're in labour? The baby's going to come now?" He was usually a calm person that didn't get worked up over anything, but they weren't expecting this baby for another week. They were in the process of moving to a new house, and he had work in less than three hours.

"Ow... ow... ow..." Sara experienced her first contraction, feeling as though her sides were rupturing. "Don't just stand there, Gil. Go and wake your mother up." She counted herself lucky that they were in Betty Grissom's guest bedroom right now. She had a feeling her husband wouldn't be much help during labour, and so far, she was right.

Grissom dashed downstairs, almost stumbling over his own foot as he was in such a hurry. He hurried straight for his mother's bedroom door, bursting inside without even knocking. "Mom, Mom, Mom." He gently shook her awake, quickly signing, 'Baby Coming, Help!' once her eyes were open.

Betty instantaneously swept back her bed covers, reaching for her glasses off the nightstand. She slid them in place, making a quick adjustment to the curlers in her hair, before she followed her son up the stairs.

Upstairs, they found Sara leaning over the bed, with her hands firmly planted on the mattress. Her knuckles were almost white as she clenched the bed sheets tightly, bearing down for the contraction.

"What's wrong?" Her husband rushed to her side, assuming the worst. He had never actually seen child labour before. He had seen just about everything else during his time in Las Vegas, but this was completely new to him. "Should I phone for an ambulance?"

Sara just managed to crack into a smile, shaking her head at the man. "It's like a ten minute drive from here. There wouldn't be any point." She grabbed his hand as the contraction started to ripple through her sides, causing her to scream out in pain this time. "Somebody better do something soon, before I pop this baby right here."

Betty appeared a second later with a towel, motioning for Sara to climb back onto the bed. Her own sister had helped her give birth to her son, and she in turn helped the woman to bring her own three children into this world, so this wasn't exactly foreign territory for her.

"Gil, the bag." Sara gave him an instruction, hoping he knew what she was talking about. Most of their things were piled into Betty's garage at the moment, so he'd have to search through all of it to find where they left the pre-packed hospital bag.

Even from the garage, he could hear his wife's groans of pain, only making him more anxious about the situation. He rifled through the boxes marked 'Kitchen Stuff' and 'Gil's Office', finding a couple of suitcases containing the majority of their clothes. He lifted his duffel out of the chaos, spotting the bag they had packed their hospital essentials in just behind it.

The bag itself was a gift from the birthing class they attended. Grissom hadn't actually packed it himself, but he had helped his wife go over the check list several times, during her twenty seventh week of pregnancy, when it really started to sink in that this baby would be in the world very soon.

"Here." He set it down on the bedroom floor. "Should we go? Should we be going to the hospital now? We have to get there before it's out, right?"

His mother shook her head, signing to him that her contractions were nearly seven minutes apart at the moment, and she was barely a centimetre dilated.

"Are you sure?" He furrowed his brows in her direction. Seven minutes didn't seem like something to be calm about to him. It seemed more like an emergency situation, where they should get to the hospital fast. He had been reading up on the stages of labour over the past few weeks, his wife practically insisted on it actually, but it didn't put his mind at ease knowing the facts.

Sara was now over by the window, enjoying the cooling breeze from outside as she swayed her hips from side to side like her mother in law suggested. "Gil, did you get the car seat out of the box?"

"What?" He looked at her confused. "I eh... do we really need that now? The baby isn't even here yet."

"No, but we'll need to drive them back home afterwards." She couldn't help but giggle. "You'll have to figure out how to set it up. They won't let us take the baby home without it."

"Okay, I'll be right back." Grissom pulled his bath robe on this time, hurrying back out to the freezing cold garage. He frantically searched through all their boxes, finding the flat packed crib, the stroller and the change table that they had yet to set up, until he finally spotted the box with the car seat. He ripped open the box with his hands, digging through the polystyrene peanuts for the seat.

Once he retrieved the buried item, he returned to the house for his car keys, struggling to get it set up in the back of his car. There were instructions printed on the base of the seat, but he was too nervous about the baby coming right now to even look for them.

"How are we doing? Are we good?" He eventually returned to the bedroom, where his wife was on all fours on the bed. Her face was bright red, bathed with sweat as she tried to breathe through her contraction. His mother remained completely calm beside the bed, rubbing her palm in soothing circles across the woman's back. "Do we need to go? I really think we should make a move before you pop here."

"Okay." Sara released her grip on the brass bed posts in front of her, taking a moment to breath, before she climbed off the bed. "The car seats in there, right?"

"Just put it in, yeah." Grissom helped to support her weight, wishing they could get a move on to the hospital. He thought it was much more fast paced than this, but nothing appeared to be moving anywhere at the moment.

By six thirty, Sara finally made her way out to the car, easing herself onto the towel on the passenger seat. She felt as though her contractions were moving the baby along inside her, but they were still only seven minutes apart, according to her mother in law.

While they were waiting, Grissom quickly got himself dressed, grabbing the baby bag and a bath robe for his wife, before he hurried out to join them. They remained put on the driveway, in the car, for what seemed like hours, but was actually only twenty minutes, while Betty coached Sara through another painful contraction.

Sara dropped back against the seat as soon as it was over, lifting her arm as her mother in law pulled her seatbelt into place across her over sized stomach. The drive to the hospital seemed really quick, but Sara didn't want to get out as soon as they arrived, feeling another contraction tearing through her body this time.

"Excuse me," Grissom hurried into the hospital entrance, flagging down one of the midwives. "My wife is in labour, but she won't get out of the car."

"Oh. Would she like a wheelchair?" The young brunette suggested, grabbing a chair for him. "Let her do it in her own time. We're pretty backed up here anyway." She motioned towards the full waiting room that they had. "We don't have any free beds at the moment, but she'll probably be delivering in the parking lot at this rate anyway." She giggled, realising she had frightened the poor man. "I'll come out and check on you in a bit. Is this her first?"

"Yeah, it's our first." He corrected her.

The woman retrieved a clipboard from behind the front desk, handing it over to him. "While you're waiting, you can fill this out for us. Is your wife experiencing any pain, contractions or waters breaking?"

"Yep, all of that. Can you come and see her now?" He urged, not taking no for an answer. He gave out a sigh of relief as the woman followed him outside. He led her to the car, where Sara and his mother were signing to each other, as if everything was completely normal.

"Hello there, I'm Megan." The chirpy brunette greeted them. "So, your husband tells me that your waters have broken and you're experiencing contractions. Do you know exactly how far apart they are?" She turned as the woman with curlers in her hair tapped her on the shoulder, holding up six fingers to her. "Oh, okay. We don't actually have any free beds at the moment, but we are working on discharging some people. It seems that everyone wants a Christmas Eve baby at the moment." She giggled, ushering the husband closer. "Just hold her hand and help her to breathe through it at the moment. I'll check on the bed situation, then I'll be right back. What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Sara." The woman gasped for breath, waving the young woman off as she made her way back inside. "I can't believe this is really happening." She smiled at her husband, feeling excited, even though the pain was becoming a little intense for her.

By eight o' clock, they finally had their own private room. They spent the majority of their waiting walking up and down the halls like the midwife suggested, in order to move things along in her labour. Even in their own private room, Sara still didn't want to lay down on the bed.

"Hello, Sara." Megan returned, placing a hospital gown on the bed. "Would you mind if I examined you now? Would that be okay?"

Sara managed to nod, swaying her hips as she paced the room. She made her way back to the bed, easing herself on with the help of husband. She didn't like being flat on her back during this stage, it felt unnatural and extremely uncomfortable, but she remained put for a moment, so the woman could check her dilation.

"Are they still coming along?" Megan asked her, waiting a moment for the woman's body to relax from the contractions. "Five minutes now." She smiled with surprise, as the woman with the curlers signed it to her again. "You're not waiting around are you? Are you wanting any form of pain relief at this stage?"

"No." Sara shook her head, adamant on her decision not to drug her baby. "She keeps telling me I'm going to regret it." She motioned towards her mother in law beside her. "But no matter how bad it gets, don't give me anything."

"Okay." Megan giggled softly, taking her chance to examine, Sara, now that she was a little more relaxed. "Oh, I can feel the top of your baby's head already. And... it feels like you're nearly nine centimetres dilated, congratulations." She applauded her. "This baby should be along in no time. Do you know what you're having?"

"No, we wanted it to be a surprise." As soon as the examination was over, Sara climbed back of the bed, leaning against it, so she could continue to sway her hips. She continued this process for another half hour, before Megan returned with another woman.

"Can you do something now? She's still in pain." Grissom urged the woman, but they didn't seem all that bothered.

"Sara's doing it beautifully herself." Megan assured him, placing a towel on the floor beneath, Sara. She was now squatted down on her knees beside the bed, leaning over the inflatable maternity ball in front of her. "Sara, I'm just going to examine you again, alright?" She knelt down behind her. "How are you feeling now, Sara?"

"Horrible." Sara swept her fingers through her sweaty hair, breathing softly as the burning wave of pressure and pain started to subside. When the next contraction started to rip its way through her lower body, she immediately felt the urge to start pushing. She had been so worried that she wouldn't know how to do it when the time came, but it just came to her naturally.

Betty held her hands, while her husband anxiously bit his lip across the room. The young midwives remained behind her, coaching her through each push, ready to guide the baby out onto the blankets, as soon as it arrived.

For what seemed like an endless amount of time, Sara writhed and swayed on the floor, making her husband feel completely helpless during her self contained struggle.

"There's the head." Megan announced. "Breathe gently, Sara, that's it. Go again when you're ready."

Sara didn't have to wait long, she started pushing again, feeling a sudden sense of relief. The slippery little body of her baby slid right into Megan's arms, not even making a sound in the process.

"Here we are, I'm going to pass your little one through your legs, so you can see what you've got."

Sara reached down, amazed at the sight of the tiny baby being passed to her. She counted ten fingers, ten toes, two hands, two feet, nose, eyes, ears and a gorgeous little mouth that was taking in its first breath.

* * *

"Then Daddy shouted, it's a girl!" Rosa finished the familiar story, giggling again as her mother tickled her little sides.

"That's right. First he shouted, it's a baby. We have a baby." Her mother reminded her, giggling herself at the memory. "Then he finally got close enough to see that you were a little girl. He was so happy. He had been hoping for a girl."

"Mommy, did Daddy hold me right away?"

"No, he was too scared to at first. He was worried that he might drop you." Sara gently brushed her fingertip across her daughter's forehead, remembering the day she was born like it was yesterday. "Your father cut your cord, and went with you when you were weighed and checked over by the doctor. You held his finger with your little hand the first time you nursed. Your Nana Bets couldn't stop crying, she was so happy. Your Daddy was bursting with pride the whole day too. He couldn't believe it when they said we could take you home that afternoon. He said that you were the best Christmas present anyone had ever given him."

"Can I go see him now?" Rosa carefully replaced the snow globe she was still holding to its bubble wrap in the box, before she made her way through to the front room. Her father had been asleep for hours on the sofa. She thought that maybe he needed a little help to wake up, just like she usually did after she hadn't had much sleep.

Sara remained in the kitchen, crawling across the floor towards another box. The label on the outside read 'Gil's office', but he had already emptied most of his belongings. She slid the blade of the scissors through the tape, before she stripped it open to see what was inside. "Books." She chuckled to herself, moving it out into the hall to be unpacked later.

"Daddy." Prying the man's eyes open with her fingertips, Rosa looked into his pale blue eyes, before the man snapped them closed again. "Daddy, wake up." She poked him in the chest, causing him to groan this time.

Brushing the sleep from his eyes, he turned the watch on his wrist, giving out another groan as it was still really early. "It's only eight thirty. Where do you get your energy?" He fluffed up the pillow beneath his head, trying to fall back to sleep for just a few more minutes. "Ow," He flinched as his daughter poked him in the eye this time. "Okay, I'm up." He wiped his hands across his face, before he attempted to sit up. His aching limps creaked and clicked as he struggled to sit, reminding him of just how old he was. "Ooh, ow." He rubbed his spine, giving his daughter in front of him a smile.

"Daddy," Rosa climbed onto his lap, hugging him tightly. "Tell me the story of how I was born."

* * *

**Thank you for your reviews on the first chapter, I'm glad you enjoyed it and you really boosted my confidence to add more :D Hope you enjoyed this chapter too.**

**~ Holly**


	3. Chapter 3 - Long Wait

**Chapter Three - Long Wait**

"Why is it that the smartest guy I've ever met, can't even label a couple of boxes correctly? How did you ever get by as a CSI lab manager for as long as you did?" Sara remarked, looking up as her family returned from the front room. Grissom was holding their daughter in his arms, holding her securely in his warm embrace. "Do you even know where my clothes are?" She pulled open the flaps of the last box in the kitchen, sighing in relief as she finally found her clothes.

"I already explained the box thing. I packed up all the boxes, taped them up, then the moving guys started to move them, before I could label them. They couldn't remember where they got half of them from, so I had to guess. I'm sorry." He apologised again, calling a truce with a kiss to her forehead. "I'm sorry about a lot of things lately. I can't seem to get anything right."

"It's okay." She wished that she could blame it all on him, but she couldn't. "I asked you to give a lot up to come here, giving you nothing in return. The only thing that's really changed about my life is this new place and the fact that my husband and daughter are finally in the same area code as me." Sara pushed herself to her feet, approaching her family in the doorway. "If it doesn't work out here, then I'll go with you to where ever you want to go next." She promised him, before she requested, "Can you just give it a try here?"

Grissom looked at his little girl resting her head against his chest, before he gave his wife a nod. "I'm willing to give it a try, but Sara, I never signed up to be a full time house husband or child carer." He reminded her, handing Rosa over to her mother. "I've got to find something to do, before I end up going stir crazy."

"I'm sure we can find Daddy something to do, can't we?" Sara smiled at her daughter, carefully lowering her to the floor. "You can start around the house, since it's a Sunday today. We've still got loads of boxes to unpack. Oh and the downstairs bathroom's light is flickering. I tried the bulb already, but it must be the wiring. I'm gonna get started on scrubbing these cupboards clean, if this grime doesn't come out, we're moving."

Grissom chuckled softly, ushering Rosa out the room with him. "I'll go and get her dressed first. She can help me out in the front room then. Did you manage to find the coffee maker?" He suddenly remembered that she had been complaining about it, right before she left for work the day before.

"No, not yet. There's more boxes in the front room, maybe it's out there. Let me know when you find it. Oh, can you take this box up with you?" She motioned towards the box full of her clothes. "Just leave it in our room, I'll unpack it later."

He knelt down to pick it up, before he made his way up the stairs, with his daughter in tow. He set the box down in their bedroom, hoping he'd actually have the chance to sleep in there tonight. The sofa really wasn't doing his back any good, and the room itself felt cold and empty.

"C'mon, Daddy," His daughter reached for his hand, leading him down the hall to her room. "Daddy, how old were you when you first met Mommy?"

"Me?" He grabbed one of her dresses from her wardrobe, before he knelt down beside her bed. "I must have been... in my forties. Your mother was in her twenties. Nearly two decades between us." He spoke softly, suddenly feeling very old again. "C'mere," He ushered her closer, giving her a hand with the sleeves of her pyjamas. "Why are you always so curious about our past?"

"Mommy says it's your fault for filling my head with stories. I have a impres-ible mind."

"Impressionable." He corrected her, chortling softly to himself. "We first met a long, long time before you were born. That story that I told you last night, that was just the beginning of your mother and I. There's lots more stories to tell. For another time." He quickly warned her, sensing she was going to ask him. "We have a busy day today."

"O-kay." Rosa sighed softly in disappointment, lifting her arms up as her father lifted her dress over her head. He swept her shoulder length brown hair out from under the collar, giving her a smile as she looked just like her mother.

He had selected a simple colour block summer dress for her to wear, with all of her favourite colours on it. Pink, yellow, blue and white, striped down to just above her knee. Even though his wife was much more of a tomboy, she bought much more girly clothes for her daughter, often joking that Rosa was the doll she never had as a child.

Rosa turned around so her father could button the back, before she grabbed her hair brush to take to her mother downstairs. She didn't dare let him try to brush her hair again. He always made a mess of it, even if he was just brushing her hair before bed.

"Mommy," Rosa hurried into the kitchen, crashing into her arms on the kitchen floor. "What's that for?" She pointed to something in one of the boxes nearby.

"That... that is your old bottle steriliser, from when you were just a baby. Your Auntie Catherine bought that for us at my baby shower, when I was still pregnant with you. We didn't know the first thing about taking care of a baby then. She practically gave us how to lessons on how to do everything for you."

"Did you keep it because you want another baby?" Rosa had often wondered if she could have a baby brother or sister like some of her friends, but her parents never brought it up. "Will you have another baby, Mommy? Now that you and Daddy are together, will you?"

"No, we can't have another baby. You were a very special gift. The only baby that we could have." Reaching for the brush from her daughter's little hand, Sara gently combed her chocolate brown hair out, until it was evenly divided around her head.

Rosa hadn't inherited her mother's wavy hair, but the colour was very similar to her own. She had very similar facial features to her mother too, but there was just a hint of the donor father in her.

Using one of the ties from around her wrist, Sara tied her daughter's hair into equal pigtails either side of her head. She pressed a kiss to the middle of her forehead once she was done, giving her a smile as she looked up at her.

Rosaline's big brown eyes definitely resembled the donor father's, making Sara doubt her choice to ever ask one of her close friends to be a donor for her baby, even though she wouldn't give up her little girl for anything in the world.

They went through a hell of a journey to get here, there was no going back on it, not now or ever.

Betty Grissom often wondered if she was ever going to get a grandchild from her only son. When he announced that he had married, Sara, to her, some years after the actual marriage, she had hope that children might be in their future. It wasn't until she actually met Sara, that she realised that this woman had no intention of having children, leaving her as another grandchild-less woman.

Shortly after Grissom and Sara's departure from Las Vegas, and reunion after their separation across seas, they returned to Betty's house for Thanksgiving, telling her that they had decided to start a family. Betty wasn't sure what to expect at first, with all these modern day family's nowadays, consisting of adopted children from all over the world or just a family pet to complete the family. But when Sara said that they were trying to get pregnant, she knew that her dream of grandchildren would be in the not too distant future.

Her son and daughter in law were in the stage of 'actively trying' for a baby for two years, before they started to lose hope.

Sara had her fertility checked, worried that it might be her advanced age giving them problems, but she was told by several doctors that she was very fertile. Instead of seeking any more medical help, they started researching online for ways to guarantee a pregnancy. She read more facts on sperm and ovaries than her brain could take, worrying about one that said a woman would probably release four hundred eggs during her fertile years.

What if all the good ones had already been used up?

Sara documented every little detail about her cycles, from her temperature, right down to the squicky stuff, she really didn't want to discuss with her mother in law. She timed sex with her husband, kept a record of his temperature and stopped him from drinking or eating anything that could lower his sperm count in hopes of conceiving a baby, but it still didn't happen.

After two years of this, Sara became exhausted, feeling as though it was never going to happen for her. Grissom finally decided to get himself tested in hopes of putting her mind at ease, but it only confirmed that the two of them had no hope of conceiving a baby.

To take her mind off the ordeal, Grissom decided to take his wife on a second honeymoon, touring Europe. Paris, Vienna, Budapest, Rome, Barcelona; it didn't matter where they went, the simple fact that they would never be able to have a baby together, was still on their minds.

When they returned home, Sara brought up the subject of adopting. As she herself had grown up in foster care, she was willing to give a loving home to any child that they could. Her husband wasn't too sure about it as he wanted his own flesh and blood, but he agreed to look into it with her.

The process was long and painful, giving them even more disappointment as their characters and life style came into question. Sara felt as though she was being put on the stand, only to find out that she wasn't good enough to become a mother.

Quickly giving up on that idea, they turned to the donor sperm field, which only seemed even more daunting. They knew better than anybody that it didn't matter if this guy, donor number one twenty seven, was physically fit, blue eyes, blonde hair, great personality and a PhD, he wasn't going to be around to raise his biological child.

That would be all up to them.

After looking through files upon files of men willing to donate their sperm, Sara gave up on the strangers, turning to her own friends instead. After all, this baby was going to be growing inside of her body, she at least wanted to know what the guy was like, before she impregnated herself with his sperm. She told her male friends from the lab that it was a crazy idea, but if any of them were willing to help her out, she'd be eternally grateful.

It took another two years to come to a final decision, but their little girl was well worth the wait. And now they were back in Las Vegas, it would be the first time in years, that they would see the man that made it all possible.

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**Thank you for reading, please review :D**

**~ Holly**


	4. Chapter 4 - Old Friends

**Thank you for all of reviews so far, just a quick author's note first. I haven't watched the CSI Las Vegas series on TV, since Catherine was still in charge and Ray Langston was still there. I have seen clips of the new characters on the show, but don't have much knowledge of them, so I'm writing this with the old lab crew, rather than the new ones that I know nothing about.**

**Thank you, hope you're still enjoying it.**

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**Chapter Four - Old Friends**

Stepping off the elevator onto the old lab floor, Grissom felt as though he had never been gone. He sensed that one of his team were right around the corner, ready to jump him with questions. Either that or one of the lab techs were waiting behind the safety of their glass doors, ready to pounce him with queries or their own interpretations on how the case will unfold.

"Ah, no running off."

Lifting his little girl into his arms, Grissom held her securely against his hip, so she didn't go wandering off and get herself into trouble. He knew that this was no place for a child, but his wife insisted that they bring her, so they could finally introduce their daughter to their closest friends.

"Okay, this way." His wife ushered them through the hall.

After signing herself and her family in, Sara led the way through the familiar halls, towards the break room. The old team used to gather in there before each shift, waiting for the boss to get in to give them their assignments, but it seemed a little under used and vacant at the moment.

"Weird being back?" Sara asked him, giving him a smile as he looked a little overwhelmed. "Wait until you see your old office. It looks nothing like it used to. Nick and Greg share it now. Riley used to be in there too, but she couldn't take Catherine's leadership after less than a year."

"I remember Catherine saying." The man nodded, adjusting his daughter in his arms as she started to look around. They made their way towards his old office door, taking a look inside. The space seemed much grander than he remembered, but it felt completely foreign to him. "Nick and Greg, you said?" He double checked, immediately guessing who's desk was who's from the way they were organised.

Or lack of organisation in Greg's case.

"Catherine still in her cupboard?" He remembered the first time she was given it, she called it a cupboard, but she wasn't willing to give it up for any other office in the building. "The lab seems kind of empty."

"We're between shifts. C'mon," Leading the way towards the break room, Sara held the door open, ushering her family inside. "Okay. Sit here, I'll go find out where everyone is." She dropped her bag in one of the empty seats, pecking a kiss to her husband's cheek, before she disappeared.

"Mommy works here?" Rosa gave her father a curious look. She thought that it would be a bright shiny lab, like the one that her father took her to in San Francisco, but it was pretty dull at the moment.

"No, this is just the break room. Where people come for their coffee, snacks and lunch. Mommy works out there, in the lab." He pointed out the windows in front of them, barely recognising any of the faces that went about their daily business. "The office we were just in used to be mine. That right there." He pointed to the open office door across the hall. "In there used to be Conrad Ecklie's office. You remember him?"

Rosa shook her head, not remembering ever meeting him. She was only two years old when Grissom and Sara met up with him for dinner, so it was quite a while ago for her.

"There's the locker room over there. Half of them are probably still dented from your Uncle Warrick's tempers. Uncle Nicky was the worst though." He didn't recognise the layout of the labs, and there were plenty of new lab techs walking around, confusing him even more.

Rosa struggled in her father's arms a few seconds later, until he let her down to take a look around. The room itself looked very ordinary, nothing like what she was expecting. The dark marble kitchen units ran around one side of the room, while the large glass table practically filled the room, with chairs stationed at each corner.

"Don't touch anything."

Her father warned her, perching himself on the edge of the table as he watched her curiously looking around. He glanced up as he heard familiar voices, noticing lab techs, Mandy and a young woman, gossiping in the hallway outside of the labs. They said their goodbyes, then parted ways, getting back to whatever they were working on, before the juicy piece of gossip distracted them.

"Does Mommy have a office?" Rosa queried, smoothing her curious little fingertips across the leather chairs.

"No," The man shook his head. "Mommy has never been in the manager or supervisor role. The big bosses upstairs only give offices to the big wigs around here." Grissom smiled at her, letting her continue with her exploration of the room. "This room used to be a lot bigger a few years ago. There weren't quite so many chairs either. It looks more like a conference room than a break room now."

"What's a confess room?"

"Conference." He giggled softly, dropping into one of the chairs. "A confession room is a lot smaller. A conference room looks just like this. It's where people have big meetings about important things."

"Like what?" Rosa gave the man a curious look.

"Well... if there was a new type of toy that somebody wanted to make, all the experts would sit down in a big meeting room like this and talk about what it would look like, what colour they'd use. The age range of children that could play with it. Then of course they'd discuss how much they'd charge the parents to buy these things for their children." Grissom smiled at his daughter, taking her hand as she walked round the table to him. "Did Mommy change your tights again?"

He had dressed her in a smart black, white and pink check pinafore dress with white tights this morning, but she was now wearing black and white spotted ones.

"Mommy said they didn't go."

"Oh, Mommy knows fashion now does she?" He smirked, un-ravelling the crumpled sleeve from her shoulder. "Is that Mommy's necklace you're wearing?" Lifting the double hearted charm necklace from around her neck, Grissom smiled as he remembered buying it for his wife in Rome. "You know, I think you wear Mommy's necklaces more than she does. Bracelets too." He smirked, seeing the six bracelets she had piled onto her little wrist.

"They keep falling off." She pulled them off her wrist, placing them in her father's hand.

"Oh, thank you. That's because they're Mommy's bracelets. They're too big for you." Grissom placed them in his jacket pocket, so they wouldn't get lost, feeling something sticky against the fabric of his pocket. He pulled the pocket open a little wider, finding the half lolly pop that his daughter had the day before at the park. She didn't want to keep it while she was on the swings, so she handed it over to him to keep hold of. He checked his other pockets for a tissue or something, finding some sweet wrappers and the shoe to a Barbie doll instead.

"What's that?"

"With the first stroke of midnight, she remembered what the fairy godmother had said, and without a word, slipped away from the Prince and the ball. As she ran, she lost one of her slippers," He held the Barbie's shoe out to his daughter, continuing, "But not for a moment did she dare to pick it up. If the last stroke of midnight were to sound, the fairy godmother's magic would wear off and the Prince would see that she was not in fact a Princess. Oh what a disaster that would be."

"Cinderella." Rosa recognised the story, getting a proud smile out of her father.

"Off she fled and vanished into the night . . . I don't know about you, but I never really liked the ending to Cinderella, especially not that Disney movie one that your mother forced us to watch." Replacing the shoe to his pocket, Grissom climbed to his feet, looking out for any sign of his wife. "Where's Mommy got to then?"

Sara returned a few minutes later, escorting just three people with her, towards the break room. Although he was happy to see the familiar faces, Grissom felt as though his wife betrayed him as the second man stepped into the room.

"Gil," Captain Jim Brass stepped forwards first, greeting his old friend with a hand shake. "So, you've finally come back to your roots, huh. Staying long?"

"For the time being, we're giving Las Vegas a chance for now." Sara answered for him, ushering her colleagues, Catherine Willows and Nick Stokes into the room. "Here she is. Rosa." She called her daughter out from behind the chairs. Her colleagues patiently waited in anticipation, watching closely as the little girl emerged from behind the chairs. "C'mon sweetie, don't be shy. This is your Aunt Catherine and your Uncle Nicky."

"What about me?" Brass was surprised that he didn't get a family role.

"You can be, Papa Brass. Unless you'd prefer, Gramps." Catherine teased him.

Sucking her thumb in her mouth, Rosa hesitantly stepped closer to her mother, looking at the unfamiliar people around them. Her mother proudly introduced her as 'Rosaline Juliet Grissom', while her friends complimented her on how adorable and sweet their little girl was.

"She's the spitting image of her mother." Brass shook his old friend's hand again, telling him that they should catch up properly sometime, before he left the room to get back to work.

Grissom knew that the comment was meant to be a compliment, but he immediately took it as an insult. He knew that his own daughter could never look like him, but people didn't have to point that painful little fact out to him every chance they got.

"Hi, sweetie." Catherine knelt down in front of her. "I'm your Aunt Catherine. We've all been waiting a long time to see you. I saw your Mommy when she was pregnant with you, but we missed you being born." She smiled at the child, glancing up at Sara in front of her. "She's adorable, Sara."

"She's never usually this shy." Her mother gently placed her hands on her child's shoulders, looking up at Nick in front of her. Catherine had seen a few pictures of the child over the years, so she knew what to expect, but he had never seen any pictures. He didn't even know her name until today. He looked a little shocked to say the least, but she wasn't sure if it was the shock of knowing that she was really real or the fact that she looked more like him, her donor father, than her own parents.

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**Thank you for reading, please review :D**

**~ Holly**


	5. Chapter 5 - Secrets Out

**Chapter Five - Secrets Out**

Rosa pinched her nose, grimacing as her father served the slop into the bowl in front of her. "No, thank you." She pushed the bowl away from her, getting it pushed back into place by her father's hand. "It smells gross. What is it?"

"Leek and Potato soup. It's a smooth creamy vegetable soup, that's full of flavour and it's good for you. Besides, I made it for lunch, and it's all there is, so you're going to eat it." Spooning some into his own bowl, her father took a seat opposite her, giving her a smell as she continued to hold her nose. "It doesn't have anything in it that you haven't already tried before. You like potatoes. You like onions. You like leeks. And you like soup."

"I don't like it."

"You didn't even try it yet." Removing her fingers from pinching her nose, Grissom placed a spoon in her hand, trying to get her to try some. It used to be easier to get food in her when she was younger, but since she learnt the word 'no', she was becoming more and more picky with any kind of food. "Go on, try it. You'll like it, I promise."

Leaning against her elbow on the table, Rosa circled her spoon around the edge of the bowl, feeling her stomach growling with hunger. She watched her father taking slow sips of the soup, giving her a smile as if to entice her into eating it too.

"C'mon, why would I feed you something you didn't like? Try some. If you don't like it, I'll make you something else, but you have to try a couple of mouthfuls first." He made her a promise, watching as she reluctantly scooped up a spoonful of her soup. She tasted a bit of it, getting a smile out of her father. "Good girl."

After eating the rest of their meal in silence, Grissom cleared away the table, getting himself ready to leave. Now that everything was unpacked and the kitchen had been thoroughly cleaned, his wife had left him a grocery list pinned to the fridge, so they could have something other than fast food for dinner.

"C'mon, we gotta go." Grissom lifted his sleepy child from the sofa. "I'm sorry. We don't have time for a nap today. We've still got lots to do, before Mommy gets home."

He grabbed her sneakers from beside the door, carrying her out to his car in the driveway. As soon as she was in her car seat, he could see just how tired she was. She was having trouble keeping her eyes open, meaning he might actually be able to quickly get everything on his wife's list, without having to stop every couple of minutes to explain why they couldn't get a certain thing that she wanted.

"Okay, here we go," Unclipping the belt from her chest once they arrived at the store, Grissom lifted his daughter out of the car, holding her securely against his side as he made his way into the store. He knew that she was too big to fit in the shopping cart now, but he couldn't carry her round the whole store, it would do his back in.

Lowering her to the floor, Grissom made sure that she stable on her feet, before he started walking with her.

"Nooo, Daddy." The sleepy girl clung to his legs, while he grabbed one of the shopping carts. "Daddy, can you carry me?" She rubbed her tired little eyes open beside him, getting him to give in within a few seconds.

"Okay, c'mon." He slid his hands beneath her arms, lifting her back into his arms. "My backs already killing me anyway." Her father smirked, just about managing to carry her round the whole store. He managed to balance her against the handle of his shopping cart a few times, easing the pain in his back, but not by much. Of course, he couldn't set her down at this point, as she was already fast asleep against his shoulder.

"Grissom," A familiar face appeared in the frozen foods aisle. "Hey boss, I heard that you and Sara were back. I must have missed you at the lab the other day."

"David Hodges." Grissom shook the man's hand, really wishing he hadn't been spotted.

"Oh yeah, I heard that you two went through with that donor pregnancy thing." The lab tech noticed the child sleeping against his chest. "She really does look like, Nick." He knew he had put his foot in his mouth, as the blood practically drained from the older man's face. "Oh, I didn't mean it like that. She looks more like, Sara than him. But there's some definite resemblance in there."

"Goodbye, David." The man dismissed their conversation, making his way towards the tills with his daughter. He quickly paid for their shopping, taking his little girl back home for a comfortable bed to rest her little head on.

He managed to get a few minutes of peace to himself, before she was up again, wanting to play with some of her toys. It was easy to forget that she was another man's child when it was just the two of them. Or even just with people that didn't know where she came from. It was a lot harder to forget when they were so close to where it had all begun though.

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"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are," Reaching for one of the plastic tea cups from her father's hands, Rosa dipped it into the bath water around her, before she handed it back to him. She splashed her hands into the bubbly bath water either side of her, giggling as she splashed her father's shirt. "Daddy, when's Mommy coming home?"

"Um," He pursed his lips together, taking a look at his watch. "Another couple of hours yet, which gives us plenty of time to get you into bed. Are you ready to get out yet?"

Rosa raised her hands to eye level, waiting for the bubbles to trickle away, before she could see her fingertips. "No, they're not even wrinkly yet." She showed him the evidence as he slid his glasses up his nose. "Will I have to wear glasses, Daddy? Mommy wears glasses and so do you, so will I have to?"

Grissom gave her a shrug. "Your mother didn't always wear glasses, so you might not need them until your much, much older." He knew that her biological father didn't wear glasses yet, but he had only just turned forty. "Let's wash your hair." He reached for the shampoo bottle sat on the edge of the bath.

"Don't get it in my eyes." The five year old gave him a stern warning.

"I won't." Gently tilting her head back, Grissom poured the water from the tea cup over her head, refilling it from the bath water, until her hair was all wet. He squeezed a small amount of shampoo into the palm of his hand, massaging it into her head.

Before they moved here, he hadn't really bathed her since she was a baby. He used to be so nervous to bath her when she was so tiny. His wife could expertly support her slippery little body in the water and carefully wash her with a wash cloth, but Grissom was always so worried that she might slip and drown with him.

When Sara first dropped the bomb that she wanted to have a baby, he had to admit that he wasn't overly thrilled with the idea. He liked children, but he had never even thought of the possibility of having one of his own. That was when his mother decided to tell him 'there comes a point in every man's life, when he realises that he is going to spend the rest of his life alone, unless he is willing to compromise.'

He knew that his colleagues at the college wouldn't understand, as they already had two or three children, most of them already in their teens. He had many reasons for not wanting to have a child at such a late stage in his life, the main one being that he didn't want to be encumbered with the responsibility of diapers, sleepless nights and the distance that it would cause between him and his wife.

He eventually saw that his only compromise for keeping Sara, was agreeing to have a child with her. After all, it was better to be a father and be with Sara, rather than childless, without her.

It wasn't until his wife's pregnancy started to show, that he really started to get excited about having a baby. He loved Rosa from the moment he felt her move, feeling as though there wasn't anything in the world that could ever separate him from the little life that his wife created with her body.

Since they moved back to Las Vegas, and closer to his daughter's donor father though, Grissom was starting to feel as though his role as his daughter's father was being threatened.

"Okay, it's gone nine, your mother said eight thirty at the latest." The man reached for one of the white fluffy towels from the radiator, getting it ready to lift his daughter out of the bath tub. He wrapped the towel around her, taking her through to her bedroom, where her pyjamas were already set up. He dried her hair with her mother's hairdryer first, trying to get her to stand still long enough to dry one section.

Grissom lifted the child into her pink Peppa pig pyjamas, before he set her down on her bed. "There we go, dinner, bath, pyjamas... remind me what comes next again?" He gave her a playful tickle, as it was her favourite time of day.

"Story." Rosa crawled back across her bed, dropping her head to her pillow. "Can you tell me a new one this time, Daddy?"

"A new one?" Her father lifted her legs, sweeping out her sheets from under her, so he could tuck her in first. "Okay... well, not so long ago," He started the story, knowing he'd regret it later when his wife found out, but it was a story that had to be told, especially while they remained here in Las Vegas. "A little while before you were born. Your Mommy really wanted to have a baby. We had been married for quite a long time, and the natural thing in most marriages is to spend the rest of our adult life together. But your Mommy wanted something more. She wanted a baby to look after."

"Me?"

"Yes, our beautiful, smart little girl." He gently brushed her hair behind her ear, before he continued, "Mommy tried for a very long time to get pregnant. For most Mommy's, it happens quite quickly, so your Mommy was very upset when it didn't happen right away. We went to a doctor shortly after that, and they told us that... well, that your Daddy was too old to be a father at such a late stage in his life."

"But you are my Daddy." She gave him a confused look, not really liking this story compared to all the others.

"I am. Nothing that ever happens will ever change that." Grissom assured her, leaning down to her level on the bed. "When your Mommy heard that I couldn't get her pregnant, she was very upset, because she really wanted a baby. To stop Mommy from being so upset, I agreed to a procedure that meant Mommy could become pregnant with you."

Rosa continued to give him a quizzical look, trying to understand what he was telling her.

He tried not to get into too many details as she was still so young, so he stuck to the basics that she would understand. "You see, Mommy's have eggs in their tummies and Daddy's have the seed. When they get together, they grow in Mommy's tummy to make a baby. You need both of these to make a baby, so we had to find a donor Daddy that would give us the seed to make you."

"A donor Daddy?" She furrowed her brow with confusion.

"Well, the technical name for him is a sperm donor." He really didn't want her to call him her donor Daddy, so he quickly switched the term. "You grew in Mommy's tummy thanks to our sperm donor. Without him, we wouldn't have been able to have you. I'm still your Daddy though, I will always be your Daddy and Mommy will always be your Mommy. You were just made a little differently to most children."

"Who is he, Daddy?" Rosa gave him a curious look. "Do I know him?"

"Um... no, not really." He shook his head, adjusting the cover over her chest. "But he does live here in Las Vegas. He's quite a close friend of your mother's too."

"Do you have a picture of him? Do I look like him?"

"No, you look like your Mommy." Admitting that she looked like him, would be like admitting defeat to him. She did have his eyes and the same colour hair as him, but he still saw Sara when he looked at her. "We don't have a picture in the house." He shook his head. "But we chose him very carefully. Your Mommy didn't want just any donor to make you. He's very special to your Mommy, just like you're very special to me. Do you understand?"

Rosa nodded her head, sliding lower on her bed to get more comfortable to sleep. "Daddy . . . was he there when I was born?"

"No." He shook his head, resting his hands on the bed either side of her. "Only Nana Betty, Mommy and me where there when you were born." He reminded her of the story she had heard thousands of times. "After donating his seed to make you, the donor didn't really have any part in your life."

"Why?"

"Because . . . he did his job. Nowadays, making baby's isn't like the fairytales. Your donor father knew how much we wanted you, and how long we had waited to have a baby, so he didn't need to be involved."

His daughter still seemed a little confused, but she accepted his answer anyway.

"Now, you really need to get some sleep, my dear. I love you." Grissom pressed a kiss to her forehead, giving her a hug, before he climbed to his feet. "Good night, my dear." He waved to her, making his way towards the door.

"Daddy," Rosa stopped him, before he disappeared out of the room. "Can I meet him?"

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**Thank you for reading and reviewing so far, please let me know what you thought.**

**~ Holly**


	6. Chapter 6 - Donor Daddy

**Chapter Six - Donor Daddy**

Ditching her keys at the door, Sara removed the sunglasses from her face, surprised that there was even a table beside the front door. She placed her hand on top of it, just to check that it was really there, before she allowed a smile to spread across her lips. They had been living her for twelve days now, and this was the first day that she could actually walk inside, without tripping over any boxes full of their things.

"Hello?" She wasn't worried about waking anyone up, as it nine in the morning. She had been working all night on a case that involved a family similar to her own, making her even more eager to get back to her own. "Oh, hey." She stepped into the front room, finding her husband reading the paper on the sofa.

"Morning." He folded the paper, setting it down beside him. "Good day?"

"Yeah, it was okay. Late start?" Sara motioned towards the bath robe he was wearing, before she took a seat beside him to kiss him. "Mm... I've just been stuck with Ecklie for the past hour, getting a lecture about what we can and can't release to the press. I think by now, we're all old enough and experienced enough to know that we don't talk to them about our cases. Somehow the press managed to get hold of the ID of our minor vic, before we even had the chance to tell the parents. They found out from the news, and we automatically get the blame for it."

"It'll blow over in a couple of days. Ecklie will forget about it before you know it."

"Hope so. So, where's my baby girl? Is she awake yet?"

"Yeah. She's playing in her room upstairs." Grissom removed the glasses from the bridge of his nose, sealing another kiss to his wife's lips. "I have something to confess."

"Can it wait until I shower?" She climbed to her feet, removing the hair tie that had been keeping her sweat soaked hair pinned back. "We've been sweating it out in the desert half the day. I forgot how much of it sticks to you out there." Leaving him on the sofa, Sara hurried up the stairs, stopping at her daughter's room first. "Hello."

"Mommy!" Scrambling to her feet from her bedroom floor, Rosa rushed straight for the open door, throwing her arms around her mother's waist. "Mommy, I missed you."

Sliding her hands beneath her daughter's arms, Sara lifted her onto her hip, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Mommy missed you a lot too." She whispered softly, resting their foreheads together. "Looks like a late start for both of you today. Are you having a slumber party that I don't know about?" She grinned, motioning towards her pyjamas.

"No, Daddy woke up late, so we haven't got dressed yet."

"Oh, it was Daddy again, was it?" She smiled at her daughter, glad she always had someone to tell her the truth at home. "Whatcha playing here then?" Sara took a step closer to the doll's house that was on the floor, recognising it as the set that her mother in law had bought for their daughter. She set down her little girl, letting her explain what she playing.

"This is the Daddy." She picked up one of the dolls. "And this is Mommy. The baby is in her crib." Rosa reached for the crib in the top room of the house, showing it to her mother. "She's sleeping."

"What about the other two?" Sara knelt down in front of her, seeing a man sat in the dining room, while the woman was stood on the stairs. "Who are they?"

"This is their Nana." Her child reached for the one on the stairs. "She went to check on the baby, and this is the donor." She shocked her mother as she reached for the man in the dining room. "He's the sperm donor daddy to the baby."

Sara knew that there was no way her daughter would have ever come up with something like that on her own.

"Mommy, when can I meet my donor Daddy?"

Sara immediately marched down the stairs, ripping the paper from her husband's hands. "Donor Daddy? You told her. I can't believe that you told her. What gives you the right to tell her something like that... without even consulting me first?"

"I didn't realise that I needed your permission to tell my daughter the truth. That is if you even consider her 'my' daughter." Grissom climbed to his face, pointing out to her, "This was what I was going to tell you, before you left for the shower. I told her last night, before I put her to bed, and she was fine with it. She actually thinks it's the most amazing thing. She hasn't stopped going on about it all morning."

"Of course she would, she's five." His wife reminded him. "But you can't just tell her, without consulting me first. Of course I consider her 'your' daughter. We both just agreed to tell her together, when the time was right. Now it looks as though you told her a secret behind my back."

"I thought you'd want her to know. Isn't that why you introduced them at the lab the other day? Nick couldn't take his eyes off her as soon as he stepped into the room. He knows that he can't have anything to do with her, right? You told him that much, didn't you?"

"Oh my god, Gil, is that what this is about? This is your way of getting back at me, after I chose him to be the donor? I knew that it was a mistake coming back here. You haven't been like this, since before I was pregnant with her." She made her way towards the stairs, stopping to shout, "If you didn't want a baby with me, you should have said that from the beginning."

"I wanted a baby." Her husband climbed to his feet, keeping his voice down, so their daughter couldn't hear them. "I just wish that I never knew who the donor was. It's bad enough that I couldn't make a child of our own, but then you have to go and pick someone we both know as the father, who would probably be better at it then me in the long run."

"You're pathetic, Gil. You're the only father she's ever known. Why would she chose a complete stranger to her, over you?"

Hurrying up the stairs, Sara angrily dropped onto their bed, sweeping her fingers through her hair. She only went along with the sperm donation in the first place, because she thought that her husband was on board. If he wasn't on board with this, she wished that he would have told her sooner than five years down the line.

"Mommy," Rosa stepped through the door. "Why are you and Daddy fighting?"

"Oh, we're not fighting," Reaching her arms out for her daughter, Sara lifted her onto her lap as she got closer, holding her tightly in her embrace. She didn't want to scar her daughter for life with her parents constantly arguing, that was the last thing she would have wanted for her. She had lived through that torture herself, and it wasn't exactly a childhood that she treasured. "Grownups sometimes just have little disagreements. I wanted to tell you myself about your donor father, but Daddy did it without me here."

"Are you mad at Daddy?" Rosa titled her head back against her mother's arm, looking up into her eyes. "Did he do something wrong?"

"No." Her mother shook her head, placing her hand on the back of her daughter's head to hold her closer. "I'm not mad with Daddy, and he didn't do anything wrong. He just sorta... spoiled the surprise. I wanted to tell you myself. Or the two of us together, anyway. We never planned on keeping it from you forever, we just wanted to tell you when the time was right."

"Will I get to see my donor father?" She innocently asked her mother. "Daddy won't mind. He told me. So can I, Mommy? Can I see him?"

Sara gently rocked her in her arms, realising why her husband might be feeling a little threatened. She didn't want to do anything else that would upset him or jeopardise what they had, but she couldn't just say no to her daughter either.

"We'll see."

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**Thank you for reading, please review.**

**~ Holly**


	7. Chapter 7 - Photo Memories

**Chapter Seven - Photo Memories**

Selecting another photo from her album, Sara spun the book around, pointing out the baby girl at the bottom of the page. "I knew I had one of right after she was born. Gil's hand was so shaky after she was born, most of the pictures were unusable. I think his mother took this one. She's laying on the scales. That's Gil's hand there." She pointed out the shiny metal object beneath her newborn, before she pointed to the hand that was gently resting over the baby's head. "Seven pounds exactly. She lost all that birth weight within the first couple of weeks though."

"She's gorgeous, just like her Mom." The Texan smiled at her, turning the page to see more of her at the hospital. "Is Grissom alright with you showin' me these?" He felt a bit intrusive sitting in their kitchen, when the man wasn't even home.

"It was his idea, he just didn't want to be here." Sara folded her arms across her chest, explaining, "I thought he was alright with this. He never really got over the fact that he couldn't father a child himself, but now he's telling me that he feels threatened of your presence, as if you're going to take her away from him. He wants to move away again, without even giving this place a chance."

"You know that's not what I want. She's yours and Grissom's. When I saw her, I didn't look at her and think of her as mine. I don't see her like that." Nick set down the photo album, assuring her, "I haven't changed my mind at all. She's not my daughter and I don't expect any rights."

"I know that, it's just Gil that's feeling as though his role as her father has been made redundant, while we're here in Las Vegas." She explained to him. "You know, before any of this, I never even thought of having a baby. Marriage, kids, the white picket fence... I never even thought I would ever end up having any of that. I didn't even want any of it. It all just kind of... took me by surprise."

"I'm the complete opposite. I thought that I'd be married with kids years ago, but it never happened. Now that it hasn't, I'm kinda relieved. No offence, but I like my job a lot more than I like datin'."

"You just haven't found the right one yet." She playfully ruffled her hand through her colleagues hair. "You've still got plenty of years ahead of you for all that."

"I'm only a year younger than you." He pointed out to her. "And if he feels threatened by me, then maybe I should go. I don't wonna ruin things between you two."

"No, don't go. You didn't do anything wrong." She stopped him from climbing to her feet, insisting that he stay to see more of the photos. "Besides, we both promised each other that if Rosa ever wanted to meet her donor father, that we wouldn't get in the way of that. Here's a good one, this is right after we brought her home."

Taking another look at the album, Nick smiled at the sight of the tiny baby in the huge crib. "How'd you pick the name, Rosaline, anyway?"

"Gil's idea." Sara remembered. "At first, he wanted to name her, Juliet, from the Shakespeare play. But his mother said it sounded a little too posh for her. Instead, he opted for Romeo's first love from the play. She's the first love of Romeo, before he even meets, Juliet. Gil tells it better, but in some versions of Romeo and Juliet, the character, Rosaline, doesn't have a role. She's Capulet's niece, described as wonderfully beautiful." She smiled at Nick beside her. "He also said that some studies of the Romeo and Juliet play have argued that Romeo never really forgets about his love for Rosaline, but instead he replaces it with Juliet."

Nick chuckled softly, glad to hear that Grissom hadn't changed much in the past few years. "So where is she?"

"She is upstairs actually, sleeping. Gil's Mom, Betty says that I'm too soft on her for letting her take her afternoon naps still, but she gets cranky and irritable without them. Betty says that Gil stopped his naps, all by himself, when he was two. But if Rosa doesn't have one, it brings up a huge battle at bedtime, because she's so over tired. She always needs one after preschool anyway."

"My Mama said that I had naps until was nearly eight. They weren't regular or anythin'." He quickly defended himself. "I was always runnin' around the ranch with my brother and sisters durin' the day. I usually fell asleep as soon as I got home."

"I don't ever remember taking naps as a kid. Childhood seems like a very long, distant memory now."

Nick nodded slightly to her, glancing at the album in front of him again. He looked at the baby in all of the pictures, thinking he would feel differently about her, knowing that she was a least half of him, but he really didn't. "You moved around a lot." He noticed that the rooms were from different houses each time.

"Yeah, the first couple we were still at Betty's house. Gil had a temp job teaching just after that, so we moved into a little apartment nearby. When that was over, we moved into this house here," She pointed to the house in one of the pictures. "It was really nice there. We were there until Rosa was about nineteen months, until we had to move again."

"And is Grissom alright with her?" He didn't exactly mean to word his sentence like that, but Sara got what he meant anyway.

"Yeah. He's really good with her, great actually. She loves listening to his stories and his explanations of how things work. She knows quite a lot about spiders too, they seem to be her favourite. Gil thought that she'd like butterflies more, because she's a lot more girly than me, but she loves spiders. She can name a couple of species already. We even got her one for her fourth birthday. One of Gil's collection, but she's really careful with it." She smiled proudly. "I'll just go check on her, actually." Climbing to her feet, Sara approached the bottom of the stairs, listening out for any sign of life. She quietly made her way up to her room, easing her daughter's bedroom door open, so she wouldn't wake her up.

Rosa was still lying on her side across the middle of her bed, sucking her thumb as she softly snoozed. She had only been asleep less than an hour, but Sara didn't want her to miss out on meeting her donor father for the first time. She had been so excited about it all week.

Hearing footsteps making their way down the stairs, Nick climbed to his feet, anxiously biting his lower lip as he waited for them.

Sara stepped round the corner a few seconds later, holding her sleepy little girl securely in her embrace. He had seen her before briefly at the lab, but he hadn't got a good look at her then. She looked just like her mother, and even though there was no way she could look like Grissom, he recognised some familiarity in her expression that reminded him of his old boss.

"Here we are," Sara adjusted her daughter against her hip, letting her rub the sleep from her eyes, before she introduced them. "Do you remember Nick from the lab?"

"Hi, sweetie." He gently shook her hand as she reached hers out to him. "Your Mommy was just showin' me your baby pictures."

"Do you like her dress? We bought it this morning, didn't we?" She brushed her daughter's hair back behind her ear, giving her a smile as she shied away again. She hadn't introduced her to that many people over the years, but she never thought that she would be this shy around new people.

"It's a very pretty dress you're wearin'." Nick complimented her. Her dress was a baby blue colour, with an embroidered white flower design across it.

"We got some new shoes too, didn't we? Would you like to show him your new shoes?" Sara set her daughter down, letting her walk to the front door to get her new shoes. She hurried back into the room as soon as she got them, holding them up to him so he could see. They were an adorable pair of pink buckled boots. The buckle itself was in the shape of a heart, making them even more adorable.

"Wow," Nick knelt down to her level, admiring her trendy new boots. "I wish I had a pair of these. They'd come in handy when I'm out in the field."

"They're pink though." Rosa pointed out to him.

"Maybe I like pink."

The little girl giggled, leaning back against her mother's legs behind her. "They're not boys boots, are they Mommy?"

"No, your Uncle Nicky is just being silly. They wouldn't go with your complexion." She smiled at her colleague. "So, who's up for some lunch?" She suggested, getting nods out of both of them. "Okay, I'll fix us some sandwiches. Do you want to show Nicky some more of our pictures?" She motioned towards the photos on the table. "There should be a couple in there from our apartment we had in New York."

Rosa set her boots down, climbing onto one of the chairs around the table. She reached for the album from the middle of the table, smiling at the familiar sight of all of her baby pictures. "Mommy, where's the one with Nana Bets?"

Sara leant over her shoulder, searching for the photo for her. "There she is." She ushered Nick over, letting him sit at the table beside her. "Look at that proud smile on her lips. She couldn't believe that her first grandchild was finally here."

"There's my Grandma." Rosa pointed to another woman that looked like a much older and haggard version of Sara.

"Yep, that's Grandma. That's our place that we had in Colorado." Sara pointed out the framed butterfly's in the background. "Gil's office was in the living room there. That was the last place that we had, Hank." She remembered, giving Nick a smile as he looked round at her. "He was actually alright with Rosa as a baby. Remember Grissom was worried about how the dog would be around kids. Well he was fine. Hank used to carry around her blankets. If she was crying and I couldn't hear her, he would start doing this whining noise that you could hear clear across the garden."

"There he is." Rosa tapped the photo of her parents' dog, that she knew only from the pictures she had seen. "Mommy, can we get another dog?"

"You'll have to ask your father that one." Sara pressed a kiss to her daughter's forehead, before she turned back to the counter behind her. Her daughter showed Nick a few more of their photos, before their sandwiches were ready. "Yours is turkey." She set down the first plate in front of Nick. "And yours is peanut butter and jelly."

"Thanks, Sara."

"Thank you, Mommy." Rosa reached for her first sandwich, while her mother quickly cleared away the pictures, so they wouldn't get sticky. "When Daddy gets back, can Nicky have dinner with us?"

"Oh no, sweetie. Nick has to go to work tonight. He works the same time as me." Sara took her seat beside them, with her own sandwich. "This was the only available time that he had to meet us for lunch, so he decided to come over and see a few pictures."

Rosa licked her lips after a bite of her sandwich, leaning closer to her mother. She placed one hand beside her mouth, whispering, "Is he really my donor father?" as if it was a huge secret to them.

"Yes, sweetie." Sara smiled at the man in question. "And he knows about it, so you don't have to whisper. He gave us you as a gift. You're the greatest gift he could have ever given us. Without him, Mommy and Daddy would have never of had you."

"Does that mean he's part of our family?"

"He sure is."

"Why isn't there any pictures of him in here then?" She asked her mother, putting her on the spot as she had never even thought of keeping a picture of him before. Rosa finally turned her head to look at Nick, asking him, "Can we have some pictures of you? If we move again, I want to remember what you look like."

Nick looked at Sara first as if to check with her that it was alright, before he gave the child in front of him a nod. "Yeah, that'll be okay."

"Okay." Rosa suddenly jumped down from her chair, running out of the kitchen.

"Rosa?" Sara climbed to her feet after her. "Where are you going?" She caught her running up the stairs. She waited at the bottom for a moment, until her daughter returned with something in her hands. "Where'd you go? What's that?"

"Daddy's camera." The child revealed the Polaroid camera from her father's office, that printed instant pictures.

"I'm sure that Nick didn't mean right away, we're eating lunch." Sara chuckled, following her daughter into the kitchen. She scrambled back onto her chair beside the man, handing the camera over to her mother as she returned. "Oh, you want me to take it?" Her mother took her seat, waiting for Nick to wipe the crumbs from his lip, before she lined up the camera.

After lunch, Sara suggested that they go outside, where she took some pictures of the two of them together that didn't feel so forced. Rosa got the man working in her play kitchen, getting him to stir the grass stew, while she fed dinner to the three baby's that were sitting on the garden furniture with her mother.

"Okay, I gotta go." Nick finally grabbed his jacket, after a long day with the two of them. "Thanks for havin' me." He pressed a kiss to Sara's cheek, as the woman led him towards the door. "I've gotta get back to Sam and feed him some dinner, before I have to go to work."

"Who's Sam?" Rosa followed them to the door, reaching her arms up to her mother, so she'd pick her up.

"Sam. He's a retired police dog that's livin' with me at the moment." Nick explained to her, smiling as she handed him one of the extra pictures of the three of them together. "Thank you, sweetie. I'll pin this to my fridge, so I can see you every day. And I'll see you in a couple of hours, Sara."

"Bye." Sara waved him off, smiling as her little girl did the same. "Bye." She waited until his truck disappeared down the road, before she pushed the front door shut. "Well, let's go clean up, before Daddy gets home." She pressed a kiss to her daughter's forehead, setting her down in the front room, where they had been playing with some of her toys.

While her daughter neatly put her toys back in their boxes, Sara collected up her photo albums, carefully slotting the ones of Nick into place. She really couldn't have had a baby without him, but none of this would have ever been possible without her husband. He was the one who had been there for them both, changed their little girl's diapers, got up all hours of the night to feed her and stayed with her all night when she was sick.

His role in their daughter's life was far more important than the role of the sperm donor.

Sara just wished that her husband would realise that.

* * *

**Thank you for reading and reviewing. I don't want to ruin the ending, but a lot of people are jumping to conclusions that this is going to be a Nick/Sara fiction. Well it's not. It's just a little conflict between Grissom and Sara. I'm not a Nick/Sara shipper and as is stated in the pairings for this story, it's a GSR fic, all the way.**

**~ Holly**


	8. Chapter 8 - Happy Family

**Chapter Eight - Happy Family**

Sweeping his daughter off the pavement, Grissom dusted down her chalk covered hands, transferring the rainbow colours to his own blue and white check shirt in the process. He looked down to take a look at what she had drawn, smiling proudly as it unmistakable as their new house. "Very nice. C'mon then messy, time for dinner." He gave his neighbour a wave as a thank you for watching out for his daughter, before he carried her inside the house. "I still can't remember that woman's name."

"Carol. Her name's Carol. And her son's name is Dexter. He's only a year older than Rosa." His wife giggled, taking their daughter off his hands, so she could wash her chalk covered hands before dinner. "We've been here for two months now, Gil. She introduced herself to us when we were moving in, the first day we were here. Surely her name should start to sink in now." She chuckled softly, sitting Rosa on the sink counter, while she fetched a towel from the cupboard.

"I haven't met her that many times." The man defended himself, grabbing the bottle opener from the drawer beside the sink. He popped open the bottle of wine he had bought, pouring the deep red coloured wine into two glasses. He took a sip as a taste test, before he handed the second glass to his wife. "Rich, full bodied and smooth."

"Sounds like a description of an ideal man." She giggled softly, taking a sip for herself. "Mm... much nicer than that bottle your colleagues brought with them the other night. It was bitter."

"Like the conversation." He smirked, lifting Rosa off the counter into his arms. "And they're ex-colleagues. I haven't worked with them since before this one was born." Grissom took a seat at the table, lifting his daughter onto the chair beside him. "It was my fault for bumping into them at the store. I hinted that we had moved back and they immediately wanted to catch up."

"It wasn't so bad." Sara set down the vegetable lasagne she had made, before she took her seat at the table with them. "It's a Mediterranean lasagne, you'll like it." She assured her daughter, spotting her turning her nose up at the sight of the food. "It's just tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes and peppers. You've had them all before."

"I don't like it." Rosa shook her head, leaning as far back in her seat as the wooden back would allow.

"You didn't even try it yet." Her father served up the meal, setting the smallest portion in front of his daughter. "C'mon, try some. You'll like it. Mommy always makes the best food." He gave his wife a smile, before he served her the second plate. "Thank you, my dear."

"You're welcome, but you haven't even tried it yet." Sara reached for her daughter's plate, cutting it into bite size segments for her, before she started to eat her own. "Oh, I think I over did it on the chilli powder." She reached for her wine glass to wash it down, surprised that neither of them could taste it.

"It tastes fine to me."

"What's that?" Rosa continued to pick at her food.

"It's an aubergine, try it." Grissom encouraged her, noticing something out the corner of his eye. It looked like an envelope of some sort, but he could only see one corner of it, sticking out from beneath the chest of drawers against the wall. He reached out for it, realising that it was a Polaroid of his wife and daughter. "When was this taken?" He set it down on the table, letting his wife take a look.

"Oh, a couple of weeks ago. I'll file it away later." Sara sighed softly with relief, glad it was one of just her and their daughter, and not one of the ones that had Nick in them. She still hadn't told her husband about the photos. She thought for sure that he would stop speaking to her altogether if he found that out. He was already feeling a little inferior since their move back, this would really tip the scale.

Once dinner was over, Grissom started on the washing up, while Sara hurried up the stairs to get ready for her shift at the lab. He handed the washed dishes to his daughter beside him, watching her as she carefully dried them with the towel in her hands. "Don't drop it."

"I won't." Rosa carefully set it on the opposite counter, before she returned for another one. "Daddy, I don't want you to go back to work. Do you have to go?"

"Mommy can't be the only one working. Besides, what am I gonna do all day by myself, when you start Kindergarten again?" He leant down to her level, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "Daddy will get lonely all by himself." He had to admit that he used to like being alone with his thoughts, but now when he was alone, he missed his hyperactive little girl that he had grown accustomed to over the past few years.

"What if I don't want to go to Kindergarten? Will you stay home with me then?"

"You really enjoyed it in Atlanta. The finger painting, those little pen pots that you made. I still have them on my desk. Even the butterfly sculpture is still in my office." Her father reminded her, kneeling down beside her. "You'll still see me, even if you do go to Kindergarten. I'm only going to be working part time. I'm just teaching a couple of courses at the college. It won't take me all day to do that."

"Why can't I go with you?" She pouted her lip out at him.

Grissom smiled at her, trying not to give into her manipulation. "Because the courses that I'm teaching are for young adults, not young children. You're only five, way too young to go to college. You wouldn't find it very fun either. There's no painting or milk time at all."

"Never?" She furrowed her brow. "Why do you go?"

"Because I enjoy teaching. It's what I'm good at, and I get paid for it. Wouldn't you want to do something that you enjoy and get paid for it?" He smiled at her as she gave him a nod. "Well, that's why I go. You won't even notice that I'm gone when Kindergarten starts up. You got used to Mommy being away every night pretty quick. You don't even notice that she's gone anymore."

"I'll miss you both though."

"We'll miss you too. C'mon," He reached for the towel from her hands, swinging it over his shoulder, before he lifted her into his arms. "Let's leave the dishes till later. We'll spend some time with Mommy, before she has to leave for work." Grissom struggled to straighten up from the floor, feeling his back click as he adjusted his daughter in his arms. He took a moment to compose himself, before he carried her up the stairs to their room. "Sara?"

Sitting Rosa on their bed, Grissom made his way into the bathroom, finding his wife blow drying her hair next to the sink. She turned it off as soon as she spotted him, greeting him with a wide smile. "Hey, I'm almost ready." She assured him. "I can run her bath water for you if you want. Clean pyjamas are in the bottom of her dresser."

"I know, you remind me every time. I'm not that senile yet, Sara." He smirked, gently wrapping his arms around her waist, while she brushed out her hair. "We should go away for a weekend or something, before everything starts up again. We've barely spent any time together, since we moved here. Wasn't that why you wanted us to move closer in the first place?"

"Yeah." Sara set down her hair brush, placing her hands over her husband's around her waist. "That and I didn't want Rosa to start thinking that your mother was her mother. The amount of time they spent together, who could blame her."

When Sara returned to work at the lab last year, she left her daughter with her mother in law, knowing that she would be well looked after, while she returned to do what she loved. Sara had already taken four years out of her career to raise her little girl, but it all became too much for her when Grissom moved away on business, making her the sole caregiver again.

Grissom pressed a kiss to the side of his wife's head, giving her a smile in the mirror. "It wasn't easy being away from both of you for so long either. After the move to Atlanta, I didn't think you'd want to come with me again, especially with Rosa in Kindergarten."

"I don't regret any of it, don't worry." She turned in his arms, pressing a tender kiss to his lips. "But if you really don't like it here in Las Vegas, you'll tell me, right? We all have to be happy, otherwise it won't work."

"I like it so far. I'd like it even better with a weekend away, just the two of us." He grinned against her lips, tasting her minty breath already. "I'm sure Rosa would love to spend the weekend with my mother, and you know she loves having her."

"I'll check the schedule at the lab tonight. Maybe I can get someone to switch shifts with me, for some time off." Leaning closer, Sara sealed a romantic kiss to her husband's lips, lasting just a few seconds. "Do you wonna start running her bath? I'll get her ready as soon as I'm dressed."

"Yeah, sure." He turned for the bath.

Sara quickly gave her hair another brush, touching up her makeup, before she returned to their bedroom to get herself dressed. She grabbed a pair of her work jeans from her wardrobe, turning for the bed to set them down, where she spotted, Rosa, curled under their geometric print bed throw, with her thumb in her mouth.

"Aww, are you tired, baby girl?" Taking a seat beside her, Sara gently combed her fingers through her daughter's hair, giving her a smile as she looked really sleepy. "Gil, you better cancel that bath." She called out to her husband, looking towards the door as he appeared. "Somebody is a little too sleepy for her bath right now."

"Okay." Grissom sat with them, leaning down to his daughter's level to press a kiss to her forehead. "I'll go get your pj's. You can help Mommy pick out something to wear for work." He gave them both a smile, before he climbed to his feet to leave the room.

"Well," Sara reached for her tops from the bottom of their bed, holding them up, so her daughter could see them. "This red one, the black or the white?" The red top was a sleeveless v-neck top, with no pattern or detail on it at all. The black one was silky and long sleeved, almost see-through, apart from the black vest top that her mother always wore underneath.

Rosa immediately pointed to the white one, preferring it over the others. The white one was a draped jersey top, with a single pocket on the left side. She always preferred her mother in bright colours, she thought that they made her look like a princess.

"Okay." Sara climbed to her feet, switching the top she had on for the white one. She changed herself into her jeans, then grabbed her jewellery box off her dressing table, taking it over to her daughter on the bed. "Which necklace should I wear with it?"

Her daughter removed her thumb from her mouth, taking a look through all the necklaces that her mother had. She eventually selected one that had a ruby red rose hanging from a simple silver chain.

"Your father bought me that, the day that you were born." Sara pressed a kiss to her daughter's cheek, before she climbed to her feet to put it on. "Hey, did you find them alright?"

"Yeah." Grissom held up the patterned pink pyjama shirt and pants set. He took a seat on the bed, playfully pulling Rosa out from under the bed throw, so he could dress her in her pj's. "You look nice. I thought you're just going to work?"

"I can't look nice for work?" Sara smirked, pulling on her jacket. "Okay, I gotta go." She leant down to her daughter's level, pressing a kiss to her little forehead. "I love you. Look after Daddy for me, okay. Don't forget to brush her hair and teeth, before bed." She warned her husband, leaning closer to him to give him a kiss goodbye. "I love you too. I'll see you both in the morning. Bye."

"Bye."

"Bye, Mommy." Rosa waved to her mother, returning her thumb to her mouth as soon as she was gone.

Her father continued to dress her in her pyjamas, leaving her to sleep on their bed, while he caught up on some of his reading. He wanted to refresh his mind on a few of the texts that he was going to be discussing with his new students. He was a little nervous about his first day back, but he was excited at the same time as he was getting back to doing something he loved.

When the phone rang the next morning, Grissom quickly removed his reading glasses that he had fallen asleep wearing, before he stretched his arm out for the phone. "Hello?" He croaked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "No, I... I've been asleep."

Crawling towards the end of his bed, he grabbed the TV remote off the chest of drawers, switching the television on across the room. He clicked over to the right channel, spotting his wife stood behind the police tape in the distance, while the news reporter spoke to the camera.

"Oh yes... I see her. Thanks, Aunt Patti." He smiled into his phone, as the woman always got so excited when she saw anyone that she knew on TV.

His Aunt Patti used to contact his own mother every time he appeared on the news, almost scaring the poor woman half to death a few times, as she thought something horrible had happened, when she was told to switch on the TV in the middle of the night.

"Well, I'm not actually on the case. I gave all that up." Grissom reminded his mother's younger sister. "So I don't know what they're doing there. Sara looks fine though. She should be finishing up soon, her shift finishes at eight." He nodded into the receiver, smiling as he listened to the woman bragging about who else she had seen on TV. "No, I'm out of the lime light now. A college professor doesn't really tangle with the news crews. It was different when I was a CSI."

He laughed softly, shaking his head as she asked another question,

"No, I don't miss it . . . Yes, I'm fine thank you . . . Yes, Rosa's here with me." He gently brushed a tendril of hair out of his daughter's face, watching her softly snoozing beside him on the bed. "Yes, I'll see you at my mother's this weekend." He remembered that they had arranged a family get together over the weekend. He wasn't really looking forward to it at first, but with his Aunt Patti there, he knew the evening would be entertaining. "Yes, I'll send Sara your love... and Rose, yes. Bye, Aunt Patti."

Setting the phone down beside him, the man brushed the sleep from his eyes, before he climbed out of bed. He quickly freshened up in the bathroom, desperately needing a caffeine fix to wake himself up properly. As he preparing a cup in the kitchen, he spotted the photo of his wife and daughter on the side. He took it through to the front room, grabbing the photo albums from the top shelf, so he could file it away before it got lost.

Some loose photos immediately slipped out of the book, revealing some photos of the donor father with his child that he never even knew about. He knelt down to pick them up, feeling his heart aching, as though a piece of his life had been stolen from him.

Just from the simple image of his wife, child and the other man pictured together.

* * *

**Don't freak on, more chapters on the way soon. Thank you for reading and your reviews, everyone.**

**~ Holly**


	9. Chapter 9 - Fading Fast

**Chapter Nine - Fading Fast**

Sighing softly, Sara shook her head, thinking it would be easier to just admit defeat and give up on the whole thing altogether. She had no idea how insecure her own husband was, even though she had known him for years now. "I don't get what the big deal is, it's just a couple of photos. You said that you were alright with her meeting her donor father."

"I didn't know you were going to include him in the family albums though, did I?" Grissom stuffed some more clothes in his duffel bag, grabbing his glasses case and wallet, before he made a move towards the door. "I'm going away for a couple of days, we can talk about this when I get back."

"On an emergency conference?" She rolled her eyes, not believing that little lie he had told her for a second. "We're going to your mother's this weekend, what am I supposed to say to her? And who am I supposed to get at such short notice to take care of Rosa?"

"You could always stay home with her. My mother's just a phone call away too." He purposely bypassed her at the doorway, making his way downstairs to the front room. He dropped his bag in the doorway, searching for his keys on the table beside the door. He looked over his shoulder as his heard his daughter singing to herself, making his way over to her on the sofa. "C'mere, honey," He slid his hands beneath his daughter's arms, lifting her from the sofa into his embrace. "Daddy has to go away for a few days."

"Where are you going, Daddy?" Rosa curiously asked him, holding onto the little Lego brick boat she had been building.

"Not too far. I'll try and call you every day." He brushed her soft brown hair behind her ear. "I'll miss you. Make sure that you brush your teeth and be a good girl for Mommy, okay. I'll be back before you know it." Grissom pressed a kiss to her forehead, before he set her back on the sofa with her cartoons and Lego bricks. "I love you."

"I love you too, Daddy."

Grissom gave her a smile, leaving her to her Lego building, while he left for the conference that he had signed himself up for at short notice. As he made his way out to the car, his wife chased him down, holding a picture of their baby in her hands.

"Sara, what are you doing?"

"Your daughter, your baby girl." Sara practically shouted at him. "How can you just throw away the past five years with her, just because of a couple of photos with Nick? He donated his sperm, that's it. Your her father. She needs you, not him. You were the one who told her about him in the first place. It's natural for her to want to meet him."

"It doesn't mean that I have to like it though."

"Yes it does." Sara argued, "When all this started, you were the one who said that you didn't want the sperm donor to be a complete stranger to us. You couldn't live with knowing that your daughter's DNA was a complete mystery to you, and neither could I, so we asked our friends. It didn't have to be Nick, but I'm glad it was, or she wouldn't be the way she is."

"I don't want her to change either." The man admitted, throwing his things into the back of his car. "But every time I'm reminded of the fact that she doesn't share my DNA, it reminds me that I couldn't give you what you wanted, but he could."

"You're acting as though I had an affair with the man."

"Might as well of." Grissom spoke without even thinking. "That's how I feel, right now. It's easier to forget when we're away from here, where it all started. But now that we're back, it's obvious . . . and it hurts. She'll never be mine, not like she is his."

"Gil." Sara shook her head, folding her arms across her chest. "He's not the enemy, Gil. You used to love him like a son."

"Yeah, and imagine how that makes me feel now. I can't do this now. I have to go." Grissom pressed a kiss to her cheek, slowly turning away from her to climb into his car. He gave her a wave as he backed out of the drive, wishing that things could be as simple as they were back in Colorado.

Sara looked at the photo she had in her hands, smiling at the memory, secretly wishing they could go back there too.

* * *

It was Friday evening, mid-November. The sky was dark, the moon was hidden, but the street lit up from the glistening snow, freshly fallen from the night before. Grissom stood by his car in the driveway, enjoying the cold weather as he spun his keys in his hands, patiently waiting for his wife. It was understandable that she was a little nervous about leaving their three month old baby for the first time, even if she was being left with an experienced baby sitter, but it was the first night that, Sara, wouldn't be there to tend to their baby girl's every need.

"Okay, I'm sorry." Adjusting the straps of her evening gown, Sara smoothed her hands down her front, feeling unattractive from the bulge of her stomach. She had her baby three months ago, but her stomach still looked as though she was at least four months pregnant. She tightened her shawl around her shoulders, gritting her teeth together as she stepped through the snow in her heels, towards her husband by the car. "So, what do you think?"

Grissom reached his hands out for her shawl, lowering it slightly from her shoulders, so he could examine the detail of the dress. He remembered that she described the colour as magenta. It rested low on her shoulders, tightened just beneath the bust with a beautiful belt, then fanned out around her more curvaceous figure.

He felt a little lost for words, but he just about managed to croak, "You look amazing."

"Really?" Sara slid her thumbs beneath the straps, adjusting them again. "I feel as though I'm about to burst out of the top half. I've already expressed enough for three bottles, but they still won't go down." She rubbed her heavy breasts, feeling as though they would rupture with milk at any moment.

On that note, Grissom anxiously cleared his throat, opening the passenger side door for her. "My lady," He took her hand, giving her a smile as he helped her into the car. "Stop worrying about, Rosa." He caught her anxiously glancing back at the house. "She'll be fine for a couple of hours without us."

"I know . . . I just don't like to leave her." Sara didn't even like to leave her on her own for a few minutes, let alone a few hours. Their babysitter waved out the window to them from the window, before she returned her attention to their baby girl. "Look at me, I've turned into one of 'those' women already, that can't do anything without worrying about their kids. C'mon, let's go." She urged, before she started to change her mind again. "We deserve this after the past year or so with no social life."

Grissom smiled in agreement, hurrying round the other side of the car. They were attending a charity ball that his colleagues from the college had invited him to. He would much rather be taking his beautiful wife out to dinner somewhere, but this was what they were stuck with tonight.

Still, it was the first time they had been out together in a long time.

Once they arrived, Grissom was proud to introduce his wife to everyone, while Sara was worried about what they would think of her, taking so much time out of work to try and have a baby. The question of 'what do you do, Sara?' came up a few times, but her husband always responded by telling them about her past career of being a criminologist. She didn't feel like one anymore though, she felt like a fulltime mother and wife.

"Gil Grissom's wife?" A woman in a black gown, with short strawberry blonde, noticed the woman watching the champagne fountain. "Professor Collier." She introduced herself, smiling through her perfect pearly whites. "You can call me, Tori. Professor Grissom's told me a lot about you. I understand you used to be a criminologist. May I ask what it is that you do now?"

"Um... well, actually I'm out of work for a while." Sara spoke softly, feeling slightly ashamed to say it out loud. She didn't mind telling her own friends that, but these were her husband's colleagues. "My own choice, actually."

"Oh really, are you a writer, painter, photographer?" She queried, wondering what kind of woman, Professor Grissom had married.

"No... we had a baby. I'm taking some time off to raise her. We didn't want her to think of a full time nanny as her mother, so I decided that I'd stay home with her. At least until she starts school."

"Oh." The woman twisted her lips, looking at Sara as though she was one of 'those' women that left her husband to do everything. "Would you excuse me?" Tori Collier made a hasty departure, leaving Sara alone once again.

Grissom returned to his wife a few minutes later, handing her the orange juice he had fetched for her. "I saw you talking to Professor Collier. Did you like her?" Sara immediately shook her head, dropping into one of the empty seats around the outside of the room. "Oh. Why not?"

"She's a little rude." Sara simply stated, motioning her husband's attention across the room. "Looks like you're being summoned."

"Oh, sorry. I'll be right back." He pecked a quick kiss to his wife's forehead, before he made his way across the room to greet the new arrivals.

Sara remained put to finish her drink, before she decided to walk around, meeting some more of his co-workers. The evening wasn't as glamorous as she had hoped, especially after meeting another woman that thought she was letting down the female species by staying home with her newborn baby.

"We've always considered settling down, moving out of the city and starting a family," Another woman in her mid-fifties started talking to Sara, while their husbands were talking about work. Her dress wasn't quite as grand as Sara's, but the pure white, strapless dress made her look even more elegant than every other woman at the ball.

Sara couldn't remember her name, but she could already tell that she wasn't going to like this woman either, just from the way she was looking at her.

"Honestly though, we're both too selfish for children. I'm a realtor, I don't have spare time in my day to raise children. I suppose that's what nannies are for though, right?" She cackled with laughter. "So Sara, your husband mentioned that the two of you have children? How many? Are they in college yet? My niece just got into Harvard law. We're all very proud of her."

"Eh no, not for a long time yet." Sara shook her head. "We just have the one. A little girl. She's three months old."

"Oh, really?" She seemed surprised that they had a child that was still so young. "I suppose a lot of older couples are adopting infants these days. They don't exactly have the patience for these teenagers, so they pick a cute and cuddly baby. Are you planning on adopting anymore?"

"I didn't adopt her. She's mine. I've still got the figure to prove it." Sara scowled at the woman for implying that she was too old to have a baby. She quickly walked away from her after that. Having had enough with the whole evening, Sara dragged her husband away from his colleagues, complaining, "I hate this. I want to go home. I feel like I'm about to explode too." She rubbed the side of her aching breast, knowing the normal thing to do would be to either express the milk or feed her baby, but she had neither one nearby. "Can we please go home? I can't stand another moment of this."

"We haven't eaten yet, and the auction hasn't started yet." They had only been there for less than a hour, making it a little rude to just leave.

"Gil." She gave him a glare that let him know she meant business.

"Okay." Quickly setting down his champagne glass, Grissom said his goodbyes to his colleagues, before he led his wife out to the car. He didn't want to drive straight home, not without at least having dinner with his beautiful wife, so he took her to a restaurant nearby, that he knew she would like. "C'mon, you'll like it, I swear." He took her shawl for her, leading her over to their table by the window. She felt a little over dressed for this place, but she could already smell the delicious food, stopping her from walking away as she really was starving now.

"Mmm... this is really good." Sara smiled at her husband, taking another bite of her salmon. "I had that dream again last night, where I'm stuck in the basement, while Rosa is crying her eyes out upstairs. Do you think I should be worried?"

"We don't have a basement." Her husband chuckled softly. "No, I don't think it means anything. Just like the one where you leave her in the car after a shopping trip, and forget about her. I think it's just natural anxiety of being a new mother. You haven't done it yet, have you?"

"No." Sara shook her head, adjusting herself in her dress again. "I wonder if she's okay. Do you have your cell on you, so I can call?"

"She'll be fine. Stop worrying about her. Margo knows what she's doing. We wouldn't have hired her if she didn't." Her husband assured her, getting a smile out of her. "Uh... Sara," He motioned her attention towards her dress. "Do you want a napkin?" He handed her his own.

"Oh, great." The woman anxiously looked around, feeling completely mortified as her breasts were leaking milk through her dress. She tried wiping it with the napkins, but it was no use. "I love every part of being a mother, except this part. The doctor said it should have slowed down by now."

"Here." Her husband quickly retrieved his jacket from the back of his chair, stepping round the table to place it over her shoulders. He couldn't help but laugh at the situation, erupting beautiful laughter from his wife too. They didn't want to leave right away, and no one had noticed yet, so they stuck around for the rest of their meal, reminiscing about old times at the lab, before they returned home to their baby.

As soon as they got home, Sara got herself out of her dress and into some more comfortable clothes, so she could sit down with her baby to feed her. She smiled at her husband as he entered the room, holding a bowl of ice cream each in his hands. They skipped out on dessert at the restaurant to avoid anymore humiliation, but he still managed to make up for it from things they had at home.

"Mm, a chocolate flake too. You even grated white chocolate over the top. Thank you." She pressed a kiss to his cheek, making room for him as he sat down beside her on the sofa. "We should do things like this more often."

"Skip out on charity auctions or leak breast milk all over restaurants?" The man smirked. "It was good." He agreed with her, sealing a kiss to her lips. "We'll finish the evening with bad TV and a bowl ice scream, cuddling up to our baby girl." He smiled at her, switching the television on in front of them.

"Hank been fed?"

"Yeah, he's fast asleep on our bed. Margo said he wore himself out, chasing a cat out of the garden." Grissom inched a little closer to her, keeping an eye on his baby girl as she nursed, resting in the crook of her mother's arm. She had her eyes closed as if she was sleeping, but she was definitely still feeding. "I'm really glad that we did this, Sara. Creation of a life is something that a lot of people take for granted. They say it's in all of our genetic makeup to procreate. A basic instinct deep rooted into our DNA. This was the last thing I ever expected. I never expected to get married either, but this is even more major that than. I love you, more than I ever could have imagined, but what I feel for her is the closest form of unconditional, transcendent love."

Sara giggled softly, gently brushing her hand across the man's cheek. "Who would believe that before all this, you said a child was just a way for adults to feel as though they had achieved something, or a way to make themselves feel better about their lives."

"Well, that was true when we were living in New York, not one of the women I worked with, even knew a thing about the children they had back home." Grissom delicately brushed his fingertip across his baby girl's forehead, adoring every little thing she did. "I'll never take either of you for granted, for as long as I live."

* * *

"Mommy."

"Don't stand on the driveway." Sara quickly lifted her daughter off the ground, brushing her hand across her bare little feet to make sure she hadn't stood on anything in their driveway. "Let's go inside and run your bath now. Did you brush your teeth yet?"

"No." Rosa shook her head, giggling as her mother playfully tickled her sides. "I only just woke up, Mommy."

"Oh okay, we better go upstairs and brush them then." Her mother carried her up the stairs, sitting her on the sink counter with her toothbrush, while she ran her bath for her. "Make sure you brush the back ones too." She warned her, pouring some of her strawberry bath salts into the water, making it extra bubbly for her daughter. "Let me see." She climbed to her feet, taking the toothbrush off her hands.

"Mommy, I did them already."

"Let me just check." Sara quickly brushed them herself in case her daughter had missed any, before she lifted her down from the sink. "If you want any toys in there, you better go get them now. No cuddly toys." She warned her, watching her daughter running down the hall to her bedroom.

Rosa hurried back with two of her mermaid dolls. One of them still didn't look right after her daughter decided to give her a little haircut and the other one had play dough caked through her blonde locks.

"Okay, ready?" Sara knelt down on the bath mat, undressing her daughter from her pyjamas. "I see Daddy didn't brush your hair last night." She gently combed her fingers through her daughter's hair, finding one of the Minnie Mouse hair clips knotted in her hair. "Did you brush your teeth last night?"

Rosa shook her head from side to side, holding onto her mother's shoulders as she stepped out of her pyjama bottoms. "I fell asleep on your bed."

"Oh you did? Daddy didn't even manage to put you to bed?" Sara giggled, lifting her into the bath tub. "Oh, don't move a muscle," She warned her, hearing the phone ringing in the next room. She hurried out to the bedroom to get it, returning to the bathroom door with it, so she could keep an eye on her daughter. "Hey, Mom . . . no, I can't come see you today. I know you get lonely . . . but I have Rosa all day today." She explained to her, closing the bathroom door slightly, so her daughter couldn't hear what she was saying. "The hospital is no place for a child, Mom. No . . . no, he isn't here today."

The last thing she wanted to do was admit to her mother that she was having problems in her marriage. She imagined that the woman would smugly smile through the phone, saying her usual 'I told you so' if she knew the truth.

Sara knew from experience that people ran away when things in their lives got bad. She was hoping that Grissom wasn't going to do that to her and her daughter. She didn't ever want to see her daughter's spirit crushed like the damaged spirits of the little kids that she met on the job.

She just hoped that he would see sense and come back to them.

* * *

**Thank you for reading, please review.**

**Hope you have a great weekend!**

**~ Holly**


	10. Chapter 10 - Argumentative

**Chapter Ten - Argumentative**

In the past, all Gil Grissom ever needed was his work. It wasn't until he met Sara for the second time in Las Vegas, that he really started to appreciate the finer things in life. She had taught him a side of humanity that he never even thought about for himself. To him, this new way of living with family life; marriage, kids and the icing on the cake, so to speak, was still a little confusing to him.

He understood that marriage meant a fulltime, everlasting commitment to one woman. A woman that he completely adored, so that wasn't that hard to do. But he didn't understand half of what he was supposed to do as a husband or as a father for that matter. It was his first time in the unfamiliar role, and even though it had been nearly five years, this would be the first time that they had remained in the same house together, as joint parents, for such a long period of time.

The idea of spending the rest of his life with one person used to scare the life out of him, but once he was away from said person on bad terms, it scared him even more than any lifelong commitment.

Unlocking the front door to his house, Grissom set his briefcase and duffel on the floor, taking a look around the house for any signs of life. He had skipped out on them four days ago, regretting it the whole time, but he never thought to run home early with his tail between his legs.

As soon as he stepped into the front room, his nostrils were invaded with the familiar scent of his wife's perfume. She never wore anything on days she had work, as the scent in her profession could mask the odours of a crime scene. She occasionally wore perfume around the house, not so much after their daughter was born, but on special occasions; such as birthdays, anniversaries or nights out on the town with her husband.

"Hello?"

He searched the rest of the house, clambering over the obstacles in the hallway upstairs. They were boxes labelled 'Baby things', but he just had to check to make sure. Inside, he found piles of baby blankets, baby grows, cardigans, dresses... all recognisable as clothes that he used to dress his baby girl in.

Before he started to get too nostalgic over the adorable little clothes, Grissom folded the flaps of the box over again, making his way through to his bedroom. The bed was neatly made, clothes were all put away and their shoes were neatly lined up against the wall, surprising him a little, as Sara wasn't the tidiest person to live with.

It looked as though she hadn't even been in the room, sending chills down his spine.

When the front door rattled open, the man dashed down the stairs, hurrying for the slightly open door. He pulled it open wider, giving out a small sigh of relief as he saw Sara in the driveway, unloading some bags from the boot of her car. She opened the back door as she walked past it, allowing their little girl to jump out. "As soon as you get inside, I want you to wash your hands." She warned her daughter, glancing up as she approached the door, finally acknowledging that her husband was home.

"Da-ddy!" Rosa skipped towards him, throwing her little arms around his legs to hug him, until he lifted her into his embrace.

"Hi." Sara pushed her sunglasses out of the way, resting them on the top of her head. She gave him a smile, relieved he was home, but she wasn't quite ready to forgive him for walking out on them just yet. "I just picked up, Rosa from her ballet, then we went for our weekly shop."

"We went to the park too." Her daughter exclaimed, sliding out of her father's arms, as he aided his wife in carrying the groceries inside. "Daddy, do you want to see what I learned in ballet today?" She followed the man through to the kitchen. "Daddy, Daddy, watch me."

Grissom freed up his hands from the grocery bags, before he turned his complete attention to his little girl. She held both of her arms out in front of her, slightly curved, with her fingers almost touching. She bent her knees with her feet pointing outwards, giving the man a proud smile as she remembered it.

"That's very impressive." He knelt down to her level, hugging her tightly for a moment, until his back gave out. He fought against his aching muscles to climb his feet, giving his little girl a reassuring smile as she saw him struggling.

"You alright?" Sara stepped around him, setting down the last bag.

"They don't have the best bed's on these conference weekends. I could feel every spring in my back. I barely got any sleep." Grissom took a seat at the dining table, removing his shoes now that he was home. "Honey, can you give your mother and I a minute?" He sensed that they really needed to talk, rather than pretending that everything was normal.

As instructed by her mother, Rosa washed her hands, before she hurried across the hall to the front room. Her mother had promised her that she could watch some cartoons once they got in, so she took the opportunity, while the two of them were talking.

"Sara... I'm sorry about what I said," He started, feeling his throat becoming a little dry, before he had even got to the point. "You know that I didn't mean anything that I directed at you..."

"No, Gil." She cut him off. "I'm not going to accept some lame ass apology, just like that. We can't ignore this and pretend that it never happened. We have to fix this, Gil." She was still grateful that her husband had returned home from his conference after a four day weekend, but she didn't want things to blow up in their faces again in a few days time. They really needed to have an in depth conversation about this, whether he liked it or not. "C'mon Gil, just talk to me. You and I both know that the so called idea of a perfect happy life doesn't exist, so you have to work at the life you do have. Why would you want to throw this away, just because of one technical detail with your daughter's DNA?"

"I didn't throw anything away." He objected.

"The way you're going about it, it makes me scared that you're going to." Sara admitted to him, sinking into one of the vacant chairs around the table. "And I hate all this arguing. We haven't stopped since we got back here."

"You think I like it? I feel like I'm scattered all over the place at the moment, trying to figure out what to do to make sense of it all." Grissom tried to explain how he was feeling to her, but he wasn't the best at sharing his emotions with others. "You know that I don't like to argue with anyone, least of all you. If I could take a quick fix pill for this, I would, because this is the last thing that I want." He wished that he could stop himself from feeling this way, but it wasn't very easy to switch it off like that.

"Gil, if you didn't want a baby..."

"I did." He stopped her there. "I didn't at first, because I was worried that I was far too old to even think about having a baby. But when it got to the point when they said we couldn't have our own baby, I felt as though I had failed you. I could fix it by suggesting the sperm donation option, but deep down inside, I still feel as though I've failed. I still do, and being back here and around the donor father, it just reminds me of how much of a failure I am. He did what I couldn't do for you."

"Unbelievable," Chortling softly, Sara shook her head at her husband, surprised that it was just that. "The man knows everything there is to know about every insect that ever walked the planet, but he still manages to feel like a failure over one little thing."

"It's not that little."

"It is, because it doesn't matter where she came from, you've treated her like your own flesh and blood for the past five years. DNA really doesn't matter when there's love. I don't remember that much about my own father, but you're everything a father should be to our little girl." Taking his hands into her own, Sara weaved their things together, giving the man a warm smile. "Last time I checked, father's who raise beautiful, smart little girl's are not failures. You are not a failure, Gil."

Grissom pursed his lips together, wishing it were that simple. "It's not so little to me." He spoke softly. "But I've done it for the past five years, I'll stick out from now on, no more running away. I owe my daughter that much." Giving his wife a reassuring smile, Grissom explained, "My stomach was in knots the whole conference. When it came my turn to speak, I couldn't even get the words out. I tried to write you a letter of how I was feeling, but I didn't know how to make you understand. It's got nothing to do with you or Rosa, it's just... me. Being back here really brings it all back. Everything we went through to get pregnant, my failure to do that for you. It doesn't really have anything to do with him either. I don't regret the sperm donation option for a moment, because then I would never of had her. We wouldn't be where we are today."

"Him as in, Nick?"

He nodded slightly. "It sounds stupid when I say it out loud. But I've always stuck to what I'm good at. If I try something, I see it through to the end. It's hard to go through something that I failed at. Being away from here, where it all started, it made me forget about the struggle that we went through to get, Rosa. Don't get me wrong, she was definitely worth the struggle, but it's brought it all back like I'm some trauma victim or something. And then the pictures of him and her together, it felt like a knife in the back."

"They were just meant to be so she has some reference to what he looks like. She got over the fact that she has a donor father, pretty quickly after we let her meet him. Like I told you that she would, she's still only five." She reminded him, giving his hand a gentle squeeze in her own. "It will destroy her if you ever give up on her, just because she doesn't share your DNA. I don't think she really understands what it means, so you've got to get past this one small detail, Gil."

"It's not a small detail to me." He defended himself. "Nick's not only her biological father, but he'd probably be better at it than me. I'm in my sixties, Sara. I can't keep up with a five year old."

"Do you think that matters to her? She loves you. You're her Daddy. We can't pick and choose our parents, just like we can't pick and choose our kids."

"It still doesn't alter the fact that I'm old enough to be her great grandfather."

"Well Gil, maybe you should of thought of that, when we were trying to get pregnant," She gave him a smile, brushing her thumb across the back of his hand. "Gil, you're great with her. I've never seen you with kids before her, but I'd say you're a natural. There isn't anyone or anything in this world that would make me give up on you, and I know you'll do the same for her, but you've got to get past this. Or this is never gonna work."

"I already said that I'll stick it out." Climbing to his feet, Grissom pressed a kiss to his wife's forehead, before he started making some coffee. "Maybe coming here was a mistake. This house isn't exactly doing us any favours, either." He motioned towards the tap that was still dripping. They only just had the plumber round a few days ago to fix it, but it was leaking already. "Your idea about finding a more permanent house is looking pretty good right now."

"With manicured lawns, white picket fence and the perfect family home?" Sara giggled softly, climbing to her feet to unpack the groceries. "You always said that you'd go crazy living in a place like that long term."

"I've never exactly tried it before." Grissom pointed out to her, grabbing her coffee mug for her. "I'm sure I could give it a go. We should start fishing around, try for some place close to Clark County Elementary."

"Really?" Looking over her shoulder surprised, Sara realised that the man was serious. "You want to stay in Las Vegas? After everything that you just said about coming back here?"

Grissom responded with a nod, raising his hot cup of coffee to his lips. "Why not?" He took a sip, setting it on the counter behind him again. "I can't get over my jealously for Nick by running away. Provided he doesn't stop by for family meals, I think we can make it work."

"Mommy!" Rosa's little voice called out to her from the other room.

"Rosa, I've told you before, if you want something, come and ask me. Don't yell at me." Sara answered her, finishing with the groceries. She folded the bags away into the bottom cupboard, turning for the door.

"I'll go." Grissom leant forwards to press a kiss to his wife's forehead, before he tended to his daughter in the front room. She was lying on her front across the middle of the sofa, clutching her teddy bear under her arm with her thumb in her mouth. "Are you tired, my dear?" Sweeping her off the sofa into his arms, Grissom pressed a kiss to her delicate little cheek, hugging her tightly in his embrace. "Mm, you smell like cookies." He smiled at her, perching himself on the sofa with her. "Mommy let you eat them in the car again?"

"After ballet," She pointed to her 'Hello Kitty' backpack, set on the sofa beside them. "I didn't eat them all."

"You saved me some, huh?" Reaching his hand into the bag, Grissom moved her leotard from ballet out the way, finding a Barbie doll with a change of clothes, a few Lego bricks and finally the box of chocolate chip cookies. "Mm, they're the ones with gooey chocolate chips."

"Hey, don't spoil your appetite." Sara caught him stuffing a cookie into his mouth. "Dinner's soon. Don't let her fall asleep either. She won't sleep tonight otherwise." She sorted the books on the coffee table, before she grabbed her daughter's ballet things from her bag to wash them. "Don't let Daddy have anymore, will you?"

"No." Rosa shook her head, grinning widely at her father as he licked the gooey chocolate from his fingers. "Mommy, I'm hungry."

"I'm starting dinner soon, so no more cookies." She warned the two of them.

"Okay." Her husband gave her a smile. He motioned towards the television, as soon as his wife left the room, asking, "So, is this that polka dot pig thing?"

"No, Daddy." His daughter giggled softly. "Her name is Peppa Pig. This is Dora Explorer though. Peppa Pig is a pig."

"Oh, okay." Putting his feet up on the coffee table, Grissom reached for the blanket from the back of the sofa, covering himself and his daughter with it. "I missed you." He hugged her tighter, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "Did you miss me?"

"Yeah, Mommy's sad when you're gone." Rosa nodded, tilting her head back against her father's chest. "Nana was mad you didn't go at weekend. Auntie Patti thought you left us."

"Never." He whispered softly, looking into her big brown eyes. "I love you and Mommy too much to ever leave you." He pressed a kiss to her forehead, feeling her little heart beating against his chest. He had worked so much with death throughout his life, that he had forgotten how precious and amazing life really was, especially the little life in his arms, that wouldn't even be here had it not been for his wife and their donor.

* * *

**Sometimes it takes losing something to realise what you had.**

**Hope you enjoyed that chapter, thank you for reading, please review!**

**~ Holly**


	11. Chapter 11 - Past And Present Us

**Chapter Eleven - Past And Present Us**

"I look ridiculous." Smoothing her hand down the side of her dress, Sara turned to look at herself in the full length mirror, grunting at the sight of her reflection. She tried the zipper again, but it was still stuck halfway. "I really need new clothes." She lifted the navy blue dress up over her head, dropping it to the floor, before she started searching for another in her wardrobe. "What do you think of this one?" She held the next dress up to her figure, looking towards her baby girl lying across the middle of her parents double bed.

Eight month old, Rosa, turned her head to the side to look at her mother, making a soft gurgling sound as she got her mother's attention.

"No, neither do I." Her mother agreed with her, realising she hadn't worn this dress since before she had her baby. She threw it onto the end of her bed, throwing the beautiful violet, empire line dress on top of it, along with a few others. "Ugh, your father's gonna be here any second and expect me to be dressed."

"Sara!" She heard a voice from downstairs. "Are you nearly ready? We have less than twenty minutes to get to there." Her husband tapped his watch at the bottom of the stairs, looking up as Sara appeared wrapped in a bath robe. "What are you doing? We've gotta go."

"My dress doesn't fit!" Sara snapped at him. "None of the others are exactly suitable either. Can we cancel?"

"No, my mother's worked her fingers to the bone trying to get this ready. Did you at least get, Rosaline ready yet?" He caught a faint nod from her, before the woman stormed back to her bedroom down the hall. She rifled through all the dresses that she did have, picking up the blue wrap dress again, the only one that really covered her maternity figure.

Dropping her bathrobe to the floor, Sara pulled the dress on, tying it in place against her hip. She didn't like the way it looked on her, but it was too late to change it now. She removed the curlers from her hair, giving it a quick brush, before she lifted her baby from the bed spread.

"Okay, are you ready for this?" She carried her down the stairs with her, finding her husband adjusting his tie in the mirror. "Gil, have you seen that little head band thing that we got for Rosa?" Sara handed over their baby girl, while she searched through the dresser by the door. "I know I bought it."

"She looks fine without it." Grissom gently bounced her in his arms, adjusting her baby pink dress around her. "Did you feed her already?"

"Yeah, I put some bottles in the fridge to take with us. She can have some solids when we get back. I'm not risking getting anything down that dress. I packed loads of diapers, a change of clothes for her just in case. What am I forgetting?"

"Nothing, that should be it. Let's get going." The man urged.

"Hold on, one second." Sara unpackaged the adorable little head band she had bought for her daughter, before she attempted to put it in place on her daughter's head. Rosa usually took hats, hair clips and little bows straight off, not liking anything touching her head. Her hair was still quite short, but she did have an adorable little fringe over one side of her head, that Sara positioned just in front of the white head band.

"You need the bow over this side." Her husband repositioned the bow to the other side of his daughter's head, receiving an eye roll from his wife. "What? It looks better at the side, rather than the middle." He smiled at her. "C'mon then, we gotta get going. You got a pacifier?"

Sara responded with a scowl, hating those little things. She didn't think that it was right to pacify a baby, but her husband and mother in law just stuck one in her baby's mouth, whenever she started to make a fuss. "We don't need them. I need some shoes though." She realised that she was still bare footed.

"We better get you in the car." Grissom pressed multiple kisses to his little girl's cheek, before he carried her out to the car. She fussed as soon as he set her down in her car seat, a complete switch in personality from the calm baby she was in his arms. He quickly lifted her out again, giving out a sigh of relief as she returned to neutral against his chest. "Sara, can you put her in her seat?" He turned towards his wife as she stepped out of the house.

"You won't break her, Gil." Chuckling softly, Sara lifted her baby girl from his arms, gently placing her in her car seat. She strapped her in as she started to fuss, softly cooing her with her voice, until she started to settle. "C'mon then, we don't wonna be late." She hurried her husband along, not wanting to be late for their big day.

The drive there was a short one, but the wait outside was a little longer. A ceremony that was scheduled before them was running a little behind, so them and their party for forced to wait outside for ten minutes, until the renewed elderly couple hobbled their way out of the building, with their grown up grandchildren. Betty Grissom hurried their own party along, getting them all seated, and ready to go.

"Gilbert Grissom and Sara Sidle, when you first joined hands and hearts in marriage, you did not know where your life would take you. You promised to love, honour and cherish one another through all things. Life has surely brought you both wonderful blessings," The Priest smiled as he looked at the baby girl in the husband's arms. "Along with many difficult challenges, bringing you closer together. But here you are today, having fulfilled the vows to love, honour and cherish you each made on your wedding day. And God is smiling. As you celebrate here today, and as you reflect back over all the years as husband and wife, do you now wish to reaffirm the vows you took?"

"We do." They both responded, smiling at one another.

Sara wasn't too keen on the idea of renewing her wedding vows in front of her husband's family and his colleagues at first, but now that she was here, she really felt as though it was the right thing to do. And her mother in law was smiling proudly at her, so that was always a good sign.

"Please face each other and join hands," The Priest instructed, smiling as the husband quickly handed his daughter over to his mother beside him, so he had his hands free to hold his wife's hands. Baby Rosa fussed at first, her cries echoing through the small room, until her grandmother managed to settle her down. "Okay . . . Gilbert, will you continue to have Sara as your wife and continue to live in this happy and loving marriage?"

"I will." Grissom smiled as he looked into his wife's eyes.

"Do you reaffirm your love for her, and will you love, honour and cherish her in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for better or for worse, and forsaking all others, be faithful to her for as long as you both shall live?"

"I definitely do." He answered the man, erupting a wide smile from Sara's lips.

The Priest did the same for Sara, getting Betty Grissom in tears, as she finally got to see her only son married. Even if he was already married to the woman, it still counted to her.

After a blessing prayer with the family, the Priest closed with, "As Sara and Gilbert renew their vows of marriage today, they also renew their commitment to be loving and caring parents to their daughter, Rosaline Juliet Grissom. Today you have renewed your promises and vows you made to each other on your wedding day. It is with pleasure that I conclude this ceremony of renewing your vows, forever binding you as husband and wife. Please celebrate this renewal of your vows with a kiss."

* * *

"Your moving?" As soon as she stepped through the front door, Catherine didn't need to see any more evidence to tell her the reason why her friend called her over in such a hurry. There were taped up boxes in the hallway, missing ornaments from the shelves and a lack of homeliness in the house. She glanced up from the boxes after a moment, noticing, Sara, lovingly giving her husband a goodbye kiss. "Don't mind me."

"Catherine," Sara wiped the back of her hand across her mouth in embarrassment. "We didn't hear you come in."

"Really?" She folded her arms across her chest, giving her old boss a smug smile as he quickly collected up his things. "Don't leave on my account."

"I'm late for work. Thank you for helping out, Catherine." Grissom gave his wife a wave, before he grabbed his car keys by the door and disappeared down the driveway. It used to be him who caught, Catherine in the act on the job, it was embarrassing from the other side of things.

"So, that was fast." Catherine stepped into the kitchen with Sara, taking a look around. "You've only been back for what... five or six months. Exactly when were you planning on handing in your notice at work?"

"I don't know." Sara gave her a shrug, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Gil has found more permanent accommodations in a nicer neighbourhood. Still here in Las Vegas, so there's no need to hand in my notice. It's closer to Clark County Elementary too, for when Rosa starts school."

"He's talking about settling down?"

"Yeah." Sara smiled at her, surprised herself. "Switching a rental agreement for a mortgage is a huge commitment for him. You have no idea how long I have waited for this."

Catherine smiled back, before she got to the point of why she was here. "So, what do you need from me?"

"Actually, I need you to stay here with Rosa for a few minutes." Sara grabbed her jacket off the back of the chair, frantically searching for her keys in her mess of a kitchen. "There's a problem at the home where my mother is. They can't seem to sort it themselves, so I have to go down there. Of all the times, she has to choose now to have a crisis. Rosa's upstairs sleeping. I didn't want to have to wake her and take her down there. It's not place for a child."

"Sure." Her friend agreed, walking with her to the door.

"I'm sorry to call you like this, but Gil's off to California for two days. He can't miss his flight, and I..."

"No, no... don't worry about it. I did say to call me anytime you needed help." She reminded her, grabbing her keys for her off the stand near the door. "Don't worry, she'll be fine. I can help you pack up a couple of things if you like. I've got the night off."

"You don't have to do that." Sara pulled on her shoes, motioning towards the boxes and tape in the front room. "But the boxes are in there. I'm not doing the kitchen things until the end of the week. We have six more days here, so we need the essentials out. I should be back in an hour or so. She might be waking up soon." She quickly thanked her friend, giving her a wave, before she hurried out of the house.

Catherine waved her off, before she started to snoop around. She hadn't actually been in their new house yet, and the CSI in her couldn't stop herself from taking a nosy look at their things.

"Hello." Catherine managed to pack up some of the books from the front room, before the little girl made her way down the stairs. "Do you remember me? I'm your Aunt Catherine." She ushered her into the room, giving her a smile as she got closer. The child rubbed her eyes open with one hand, sleepily making her way towards her. "Your Mommy just texted me. She's at the hospital with your Grandma, but she'll be home as soon as she can. Your lunch is in the fridge if you're still hungry."

Rosa shook her head from side to side, kneeling down beside the box that the woman had been packing. "They're my Daddy's books."

"I know," She pointed to the one with a large insect on the front cover. "I don't imagine that any of these are exactly on your reading list."

"Daddy reads them to me." She corrected the woman. "I like this one." Rosa lifted out one of the books on Spiders. "Where's my Daddy?"

"From what your Mommy told me, I imagine he's on his flight to his business thing. California wasn't it?" She set some more books into the box, watching as the child started to flip through one of the books. "Ew, spiders. Those eight legged crawlies give me the creeps." She involuntary shivered, hoping there weren't any pet spiders around. "You don't really like them, do you?"

Rosa smiled to herself, abruptly climbing to her feet.

"Hey, where you going?" Catherine pushed herself to her feet, following the child through to kitchen. She curiously watched as Rosa pushed a chair up to the counter, so she could climb up. "Don't hurt yourself."

"I won't." Rosa pushed aside the stack of newspaper, lifting a clear plastic box into her hands that had a bright red lid. She popped open the lid on her lap, cautiously reaching her hand inside. "Do you want to hold, George?"

Catherine stepped around her to where she could see what she was holding, immediately screaming at the size, George, the huge spider in the little girl's hands. "Ew... put it back. Don't you dare touch me with that thing." She warned her, wishing she had never set a standing offer of help to the 'bug man'.

* * *

Jumping down from the sofa, Catherine quickly made her way to the door, ushering the man inside, before she slammed the door shut behind him again. "Okay, I'm here. What's the big emergency?" Detective Lou Vartann gave her a glare, not even noticing how dishevelled her hair was. "You know that this is my only day that I get to spend with my son, before he gets married."

"There's a tarantula loose in the house!" She practically screamed at him. "Did you not listen to my messages?"

"Honestly, no. The first one was enough." He removed his jacket, taking a look around the entrance to the house. "So this is Grissom and Sara's place, huh?" He glanced in the kitchen, before he crossed the hall to the front room. "Nice, they not staying?" He motioned towards the boxes in the middle of the room.

"No, they're moving on to a more permanent family home." She anxiously ran her fingers through her hair, feeling as though something was crawling up her back. "Rosa got the spider out in the kitchen. George." She remembered it's name. "She set it on the table to let me see him walking around, and the thing just suddenly fell off the table. We checked all the chairs, under the table, the floor, between the cabinets... but it's gone."

Lou couldn't help but smile, folding his arms across his chest. "Catherine, I didn't know you were scared of spiders."

"I'm not." The woman huffed, stepping into the kitchen to take another look around. "When they're confined in a small box, with a thick layer of glass between you and it, I'm not scared of them. I still have to call for Lindsey to squash a spider if it's in the bath. But this thing was huge, and it's loose."

"Okay," He scratched his chin, stepping into the kitchen. "How long ago was it in here?"

"Twenty seven messages ago, check your phone." Catherine brushed her hands across her shoulders, making her way up the stairs to check on the child she was supposed to be sitting. "What's that?" She knelt down beside Rosa's dressing table, noticing her colouring something on the paper in front of her.

"A missing poster for George." Rosa lifted the paper out from under her crayons, showing it to her Aunt Catherine. She had drawn a large picture of her spider in the middle, with her phone number printed underneath. "Daddy usually does writing for me. How do you spell reward and missing?"

"Sweetie, we'll find your spider. You don't need a missing poster. He's still in the house somewhere." She tried to reassure her.

"Daddy says George is girl." Rosa corrected her.

"Oh... well, I'm sure she's nearby." Catherine involuntary shivered again, hoping that it wasn't too nearby. "C'mon, my friend, Lou is here now. He's gonna help us look for her." She reached out for the child's hand, leading her downstairs. "Now, does George have any favourite places to go in the house? Somewhere that we can start to look for her, or avoid so she doesn't bite me?"

"George won't hurt you. Daddy says she's most the docile species of tarantula." Rosa jumped down the last step on the stairs, pulling Catherine through to the kitchen.

"Rosa, this is, Lou." She introduced her to the man in the room. "Lou, this is Gil and Sara's daughter, Rosa."

"Hi there, sweet pea." Lou leant down to her level. "Did Aunt Catherine lose your spider? Roughly how big are we talking here?" Rosa made an estimated measurement with her fingers, separating them to a distance of almost six inches. "Wow, that's a pretty big spider." He shuddered himself, wishing he had never stepped foot in the bug man's house either.

"See why I called you now?" Catherine glared at him. "Rosa, why don't you go upstairs and finish your poster? I'll be up in a minute to check on you." She ushered her up the stairs, so they could start looking for the spider. She didn't know if it was a poisonous spider, but she didn't want to take any chances with her friend's child.

"It could be anywhere by now." Lou pushed himself to his feet. "What do spiders eat? We could tease it out with some food."

"Live bait." Catherine motioned towards the box of insects she had found in Grissom's office, labelled 'George's Food'. "But there's already a huge spider loose in this house. I don't want to release more horrible insects in here, especially not while I'm still in it."

"Why didn't you call, Sara? Or the bug man himself?" He carefully moved the boxes from the corner of the kitchen, checking to see if there was a large spider hiding behind them.

"Sara's at the hospital with her mother and Grissom is probably in California by now. I tried calling, Sara, but she must have her phone switched off." Catherine anxiously scratched the back of her neck, eager to get out of the kitchen. "Can you please just find it? I didn't sign up to watch a spider." She stepped out into the hall, hearing a sudden crunch beneath her heel. "Oh god, no."

"What?" Lou hurried out into the hall with her, catching her cautiously lifting her heel off the carpet. "What?"

"It's okay." She knelt down to see what it was, seeing a small cheesy cracker squashed into the carpet. "I really thought for a second that I had... you know." She didn't think that killing a spider with her heel would have been such a bad thing, but it was still a little girl's pet. "I'll clean this up, you just find the spider."

"Mommy's home!" Rosa came bounding down the stairs a few seconds later, waiting by the door as she heard the key turning. She immediately jumped into the woman's arms like a hyper little puppy, hugging her mother tightly as she stepped into the house.

"Hi." Sara set her keys down, wondering what the two adults in her house were doing. They didn't appear to be messing around, but there were being a bit nosy, snooping through her cupboards and inside the boxes she had packed.

"Sara, we're so glad you're back." Catherine sighed with relief. "Your daughter's pet spider is loose somewhere in the house. I called Lou over to help me," She explained why he was in her house, before she continued, "But we can't find it."

"George? She usually goes under the sink cabinet. Took Gil three days to get her out of there last time." Setting down her daughter on the floor, Sara took a look around her kitchen, hoping that George hadn't gone too far. They were leaving in a few days, and if they couldn't find her, they'd have to leave her behind. A nice little surprise for the next tenants. "Anyway, thanks for helping out, Catherine... and Lou." She called the man by his first name for the first time. "We can take it from here, can't we, Rosa?"

"Yeah." Her daughter held her hand at her side, walking with her down the driveway, while she said goodbye to her two friends. "Mommy, there's Daddy's car." The child pointed to a car driving towards their house, as soon as Catherine pulled away.

"That is Daddy's car." Lifting her daughter onto her hip, Sara took a step back from the driveway, letting her husband re-park his car on their driveway. "Did you forget something? I thought that your flight was at two?" She looked at him surprised.

"It was." Grissom reached for something off the back seat, holding up a bunch of roses to her. "I was just about to board my plane, when I remembered what day it was today. It's our second, fifth wedding anniversary." He smiled at her, pressing a kiss to her lips as he stepped closer. "Happy Anniversary, my love."

* * *

**Thank you for reading, please review!**

**~ Holly**


	12. Chapter 12 - Family

**Sorry for the wait, my Granddad's been in hospital again and I completely forgot to update this story. Please let me know what you think. Hope you enjoy!**

**Chapter Twelve - Family**

As soon as he climbed out of the car, Grissom immediately hurried round the other side of the car, opening the door for his wife. They were meeting some of their old friends for dinner, something he really didn't want to do right now, but his wife pretty much insisted on his attendance. He closed the door behind his wife, reaching for the back door of the car to let out his youngest little lady.

"We're supposed to be moving at the end of the week. We should have stayed home and packed." Grissom thought he'd get one last compliant in, but Sara wasn't listening anymore. "Who exactly are we expecting to see here?"

"Brass, Catherine, Vartann, Doc Robbins... the usual suspects. I doubt Hodges is going to be there, so you can relax." Sara smiled at him, lifting Rosa out of her car seat. Her husband was wearing a casual dress shirt and pants, but she opted to dress herself and her daughter a little more formal for the occasion. "C'mon, it'll be fun. Besides, I'm supposed to be the anti social one here."

"My mother was joking when she said that." Grissom defended her comment, quickly locking up the car, before he hurried after them towards the entrance of the restaurant. "Is Nick going to be in there?"

"I don't know, I didn't ask." Sara lowered her daughter to the floor as soon as they were inside, keeping hold of her hand at her side. "Why, is it going to be a problem?"

Grissom shook his head, greeting the hostess with a smile. "Eh... party of Jim Brass."

"Right this way." The tall blonde grabbed a couple of menus, leading the three of them through the restaurant. It didn't seem that crowded yet, but it was still early. They passed by the doors to the kitchen on the way, invading their nostrils with the delicious scent of sizzling steaks.

"Gil, Sara." Brass climbed to his feet, greeting Grissom with a handshake, before he stepped closer to hug, Sara. "Hey, littlen." He gently shook the little girl's hand. "Lou and Catherine are on their way. Take a seat." He called over their waiter, ordering them drinks, while they waited for the others to arrive.

"Is it just Catherine and Vartann that we're waiting on?" Grissom queried, wondering who they were expecting to see.

"I invited most of the night shift crew from the lab." Brass took a sip of his tall glass of water, looking towards the door to see if he could see any of them yet. "How goes the move to the new place then?"

"We're still in the process of packing at the moment." Sara removed her daughter's jacket for her, getting her set up with her colouring book and crayons. "We're moving in at the end of the week."

"I never thought I'd see you two like this." The man admitted, smiling towards the happy married couple sat opposite him. "To be honest, Sara, I would have laughed at the idea of you becoming a parent when I first met you. You used to complain when this one gave you an assignment that involved kids."

"Well, things change." She shrugged, glad that they had changed, as things in her life were so much better than they were back then. "When I first met you, I would never of pegged you as a divorcee with a grown up daughter. Guess that just proves that you can't judge a book by its cover." Sara gave him a smug smile, before she spotted, Catherine making her way through the restaurant.

"Hello." She cheerily announced, hugging Sara as she climbed to her feet. "Oh, I have something for you." Kneeling down beside Rosa's chair, Catherine reached into her over sized handbag, pulling out a large stuffed spider. It was purple and fuzzy, with large googly eyes, making it look a little less threatening than a tarantula. "Do you like it? Lindsey helped me to pick it out."

Rosa looked at her mother beside her, giving out a soft sigh, before she accepted the gift from her Aunt Catherine. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Catherine sighed in relief, glad that she wasn't holding grudges. She took a seat beside Brass, ordering herself a drink, before she caught her friends up on the latest gossip from the lab.

"Mommy." Rosa interrupted their conversation, pointing her attention towards the man coming their way. She slid off her chair before her father had time to look up, hurrying towards the man.

"Hey, hey." He slid his hands beneath her arms, sweeping her off her feet into his arms. "Hey, Jim... Catherine." The Texan returned the child to her seat, so he could greet her parents. Sara seemed happy to see him again, but Grissom seemed a little more distant, again. "What's with the spider?" Nick asked, taking a seat beside, Rosa on the end of the table.

"Oh you didn't hear?" Brass gave his colleague beside him a smug smile. "Catherine here decided to off the family pet when she was babysitting the other day."

"I didn't..." Catherine stopped herself from saying it out loud, as Rosa looked up at them. "I offered to replace it. And I never actually... it's still alive in the house somewhere."

"You can't just replace, George with any old spider, Catherine." Grissom finally spoke up. "George is a Chaco golden knee, technical name Grammostola pulchripes. They're the most docile and calm species of tarantula."

"I'm sorry." She said it for the hundredth time. "I'll pay you back by never babysitting for you again." Catherine climbed to her feet, relieved that Lou had finally arrived. She threw her arms around his neck to greet him, before they took their seats and ordered their meals.

"We'll find her." Sara gave her daughter a reassuring look, hoping that they would, otherwise they might lose their deposit. "So, where's Greg? Or Doc Robbins? They're coming, right?"

"Doc's got a prior engagement with his band." Brass answered her. "And I think Sanders is still out of town. Looks like this is it gang, shall we order?" He motioned towards their menus, feeling his stomach starting to painfully grumble with hunger. "Sorry, they don't have a kids menu, but I'm sure you can ask for a smaller portion."

"Doesn't matter what we order for her. She won't eat it." Grissom pierced a straw through the foil of her juice box for her, handing it over the table to her. "I've never seen a fussier eater, than my daughter. She'll eat toast with just peanut butter on it, cut into triangles with the crusts taken off. She likes pasta, but no sauce or cheese on it. She likes cheese by itself."

"I blame her father, he lets her get away with it and tends to her every little need." Sara grinned at her husband, before she looked over her menu in front of her. "There's a vegetarian pasta meal here that she might eat."

"You're raising your daughter vegetarian?" Brass looked at the woman surprised.

"No, just because I don't eat meat, doesn't mean that I stop her from eating meat. I'm not one of those crazy women that forces her own beliefs on her kids. I let her eat meat, I just don't prepare it." The woman motioned to her husband beside her. "He does that for her."

"I thought you would have been against raising her as a meat eater." Catherine thought that most people who chose to become a vegetarian after a nasty pig experiment, wouldn't then try and get their child to eat meat. She hadn't let any of Grissom's weird experiments bother her over the years, but after the first one, Sara immediately swore off eating any kind of meat.

"I wasn't going to, but Gil eats meat. I want her to make up her own mind, when she's old enough. For now, she can just eat whatever either one of us make for her. Speaking of, I'm starving. Can we order?" She looked round the table to check everyone else was ready, before she called over their waitress to order some food for their table.

Nearing the end of their meal, Brass decided to make a toast to Grissom and Sara, returning to the city they belonged. "It's good to have you two back." He raised his glass to them. "To Gil and Sara."

"To Family." Grissom changed it, raising his glass as he looked towards, Nick beside his daughter. He was starting to accept that he couldn't change the fact he was his daughter's biological father. It wasn't an easy thing to accept, but he knew that he had to do it for the sake of his wife and daughter.

"To Family." The others raised their glasses, giving one another smiles as their glasses clinked together.

"On the subject of family," Catherine spoke up, as soon as the noise of glasses clinking died down. "Lou and I have something to tell you." She slid her hands into his beside her, weaving their fingers together as she announced, "We're getting married."


	13. Chapter 13 - New Start

**Chapter Thirteen - New Start**

"Penny for your thoughts." His wife appeared in the doorway to his study, giving him a smile as he glanced up at her. "You can't be missing this dingy little office, already." She made her way over to him, sliding her hand into his. "Your new study is much bigger. Nicer windows, your own bathroom..."

"I wasn't." He looked around the empty room a moment, before he turned his attention towards his wife. "Truck all packed up?"

"Packed and ready to go." Sara raised her other hand, holding up her necklace with a jade pendant hanging from it. The necklace she thought that she had lost a few days ago. "We found it. When Vartann and Nick dismantled the bed, they found it on the carpet under the bed. No wonder we couldn't find it, I never thought to look there. Still haven't found, George though."

"She'll turn up." Grissom smiled at her, taking the necklace from her hands. The beautiful jade pendant was a gift he had given her, long before they decided to get married. He turned his wife in his arms, lifting it over her neck. "We've left memories in just about every house we've lived in. This is the only place that we didn't stay long enough to make any memories."

"Sure we did." Sara turned around as soon as she heard the click of the clasp, reminding him. "We'll always remember this as the place that Catherine lost our daughter's pet spider." She smirked, leaning closer to press a kiss to his lips. "Let's do one more quick sweep of the house, before we get going. We've got a new place to make new memories in."

"Okay." Grissom took her hand, walking with her down the stairs. They both took another look through each of the rooms, making sure that they had everything. As he stepped into the kitchen, he found Nick and his daughter knelt down on the kitchen floor. "What are you looking at?" He stepped up behind his daughter, seeing her holding a flashlight in her hands, while Nick was peering under the sink counter.

"Daddy, I saw, George." She jumped into her father's arms, handing him the flashlight. "She's been under the sink the whole time, Daddy."

"Yeah, you've got like a mouse hole in the back there. She's crawled inside it." Nick confirmed for him, setting down the box that he was going to trap the spider in. "I think this counter just lifts away."

"Yeah, it does." Grissom set his daughter on the floor, giving the man a hand with the counter. They lifted it free from the pipe work, giving them a better view of the mouse like hole in the wall. "I'll get her." He knelt down on the floor to get a closer look, lying flat as he spotted the spider inside the wall. It took him a few minutes, but he eventually got her out, placing her into the little travel box. "One spider, check. Now we can go."

"Rosa, you left your crayons in the front room." Her mother called out to her, while she knelt down to pick them all up. Rosa hurried in a few seconds later, scooping up a handful of her crayons. "Thank you, sweetie. Are you ready to go now?"

"Daddy rescued, George. Uncle Nicky found her, but Daddy rescued her."

"He did? Wow, I guess we're really ready to go now." Sara lifted her daughter into her arms, making her way through to the kitchen, where the men were talking. She stayed in the doorway for a moment, relieved to see that there wasn't any signs of resentment on Gil's face at the moment. "Okay, I think we're ready to go."

"Are we?" Grissom lifted his daughter from her arms.

"Yeah." Rosa nodded her head, giggling softly as her father hugged her tightly.

He carried her out of the house, while the other two followed, taking another look at the house from the outside. "Do you want to say goodbye?"

"Buh bye, house." The little girl waved to their house that they had only been living in for a short space of time.

"Goodbye, house." Grissom did the same.

Sara cracked into a wide smile, resting her forehead against her daughter's as they waved goodbye to their house. "I promise, no more moving for a long time. We'll actually be able to decorate your room at this new place. Any colour you want it."

"Don't tell her that." Grissom carried his daughter over to the car, setting her in her seat in the back. "You already know that she's going to pick pink. She always picks pink." He chortled, pressing a kiss to his little girl's forehead, before he strapped her into her seat. "Wait till you see how big your new room is."

"Is it as big as a castle? Fit for a princess?" She excitedly asked him.

"It'll certainly be fit for my princess, once we get decorating. We might just have to put your Uncle Nicky to work." He smirked, catching the man fanning his t-shirt away from his chest as he sealed up the back of the moving van. "Be back in a minute. Sit tight." Grissom pecked a kiss to his daughter's cheek, leaving her in the car, while he went to thank his old colleagues that helped them out.

"Might wonna take it easy on the bends. I'm no expert in packing up trucks, but I think some of that stuff in there might fall over." Vartann dusted down his shirt, handing over the keys to Grissom. "Sorry I can't help you out once you get there. My shift starts in thirty."

"Thank you." Grissom shook his hand. "You've been a big help." He waved the man off, turning his attention to Nick. The younger man was perched on the back of the truck, sipping the ice cold bottle of water Sara had given him in the scolding heat. "Nicky," He nodded to him, awkwardly stuffing his hands into his pockets. He hadn't had a real conversation with him in almost five years, so he wasn't quite sure where to begin.

"Sara said you'd need somebody to drive your car or the truck over to your new place, do you want me to stick around?" Nick shielded the sun from his eyes, looking up at his old boss. "I don't mind. I'm not on shift tonight."

"Yeah." Grissom pulled the truck keys from his pocket, feeling as though he was handing them over to his son as he placed them in Nick's hand. "You can drive the truck over. Just follow us. I'll give you a lift back to your car later." He gave him a half smile, before he started to walk away.

"Grissom," Nick quickly pushed himself to his feet, stopping the man in his tracks. "I just want you to know . . . that I would never turn back on my word. You've always been there for me. You're not only a great teacher, but you were like a father figure to me. Rosa . . . she's not mine. I know that. I don't even feel related to her. And she knows who her Dad is. I know you're havin' trouble gettin' past that, because of where she came from, but I don't look at her and think of her as mine. She's yours and Sara's. I don't want to spoil that. She already has the best father that she could have. I wouldn't want to take that away from her."

"Thank you," Grissom spoke softly, looking the younger man in the eye. "It means a lot to me, Nick."

"It's okay." The sentimental cowboy suddenly stepped forwards, hugging his ex-supervisor, as though he was going off to war. "It really doesn't matter that she doesn't have your DNA either, especially not to her. Like my Mama used to say, blood may be thicker than water, but love is thicker than blood. Your daughter was made out of yours and Sara's love. If you think about, I really had nothin' to do with bringin' your amazin' little girl into the world and bringin' her up is all down to you guys too. She's a miniature you, no matter what her genes say."

"Nick, stop hugging me." The older man pulled back from him. "You'll see me when we get to the house." He rolled his eyes, walking away from the sappy man. "You haven't changed in years, Nicky." He chuckled to himself, climbing into his own car to leave. "Are we ready?"

"Rosa wants her ears pierced." Sara announced, getting a surprised look from her husband. "Her friend from school just got them pierced with little gold stars. What is it you want, sweetie?" She peered through the seats at her little girl.

"Butterflies."

"No." Grissom firmly shook his head. "She's far too young to get her ears pierced. Why would a five year old need her ears pierced anyway?"

"I got mine pierced when I was ten."

"Exactly, ten. That's almost in your teens. She's still just a baby. What if she gets an infection or gets it ripped out of her ear? She has to be old enough and responsible enough before she's allowed any kind of piercing." The man set down the law, making his wife smile as he actually took charge, rather than just asking her for advice.

Once they got to the new house, Sara and Rosa began to explore, while the men unloaded some of the heavier furniture from the back. They were going to hire some men to do the whole job for them, but they were worried about their things getting lost or broken. Sara didn't exactly welcome the notion of complete strangers walking in and out of her house, with her most private possessions either, so she felt better knowing that it would be her close family bringing in her prized possessions.

"I don't like it, Mommy." Rosa made up her mind, the second they stepped into the front room.

"It's just a little empty and eerie, because it doesn't have our things in it yet. Wait until everything is unpacked, it'll begin to feel a little more like home then." Her mother assured her, even though the house did feel a little empty and eerie to her too. She took her daughter outside to inspect the garden first, finding a reasonable sized back yard that was partially overgrown. The flowers in the borders were swamped with weeds. The grass was creeping up the battered fence panel and the dead leaves from the large tree at the end scattered the pavement. "Damn it." She mumbled under her breath. She really hated gardening, but this place needed a lot of work.

Her daughter however immediately ran wild across the concrete pavement, her sneakers crunching against the dead leaves at her feet. "What does my room look like?"

"Well, let's go see," Sara reached her hand out to her, giving her a smile as she skipped back through the leaves towards her. "You better take those shoes off before you come inside. We just had all the carpets cleaned." She sat her daughter down on the step, untying her shoe laces for her.

"Hey Sara, where do you want these?" Nick stepped into the kitchen with a box.

"Oh, just put it on the counter over there. I was gonna make up the beds and things first. We'll slowly unpack the rest of it as the weeks go by." She smiled at him, setting Rosa's shoes by the door. "You're not letting Gil lift anything too heavy are you? He's already had enough problems with his back lately."

"No, I'll make sure he doesn't." He promised her, stepping around Rosa as she started peeking through the cupboards. "Do you want me to carry the stuff for the beds up for you?"

"Sure, I'll give you a hand in a minute. We're just going to inspect the rooms." Sara ushered her daughter out of the kitchen, leading her upstairs to see the rooms. "Well, there's the bathroom. Not too far from our room, so your Daddy can easily get to it during the night."

"Is this my one?" Pulling her mother by her hand into the next room, Rosa immediately lit up at the sight of the new room. The walls were a little bland and none of her things were in there yet, but that didn't stop her from seeing the potential. It was almost twice as big as her last bedroom and it even had a bay window. She just had a regular little window in her last bedroom, but this one had a seat and everything.

"C'mon then, let's go help with the boxes." Once they finished exploring, Sara took her daughter downstairs, where she could keep an eye on her, while they unpacked their things from the van.

"Looks like there's a family with a baby living next door." Grissom reported, getting a smile out of his wife. "What? I just saw through the window. Looked like a little boy. There's bikes and things across the street too. Might be some kids Rosa's age over there." He swept her into his arms as she ran round his legs, pressing a kiss to her little cheek. "So, what do you think of your new room?"

"Big. Can we paint it now?"

"We don't have any paint with us at the moment. We'll have to go to the store later in the week for it. We need our things in there, before we can get ourselves settled in." He lowered her to the floor, taking one of the boxes from his wife's hands. "I found the tool kit. I'll come up and fix those beds together in a minute. Do you want the kitchen unpacked too, or are we gonna order in tonight?"

Sara looked at her watch, realising how late it was. They had spent practically all day packing up the last of their things into the truck, now it was almost the usual time for her daughter's bath, before she put her to bed. "We better order in. I better find the bed sheets."

"Nick already found them. He put them at the bottom of the stairs for you." He smiled at the man as he stepped out the front door to grab another box. "You ready to tackle the furniture next? My backs fine." He stopped his wife from intervening, taking hold of one end of the sofa, while Nick took the other. They had to tilt it to the side to get it through the front door then they had to fight against it, twisting and turning it in the hallway in order to get it through the narrow doorway of the front room.

As soon as they set it down against the wall, Rosa jumped on, giving out an excitable giggle as her father playfully pushed her onto her bottom against the cushions. She bounced off the sofa a second later, follow them outside to the truck again. They left the larger pieces of furniture in the front room, not wanting to risk carrying a large wardrobe all the way up the stairs by themselves. Sara managed to fix the beds together herself, making up her daughter's bed first, so she could put her to bed, while they continued unpacking.

As she suspected though, Rosa was too riled up with excitement to sleep, so she let her help out with some box co-ordinating, before she sat down on the sofa for a slice of pizza.

"This place looked bigger without all of our things in it." Sara stumbled over a box in the kitchen doorway, handing Nick one of the cold cans of soda from the ice box she just found. "Did you get some pizza?"

"He had three slices already." Her husband reported, grabbing the second can from her hands. "Hot water is on now, if you wanted to shower. Are you gonna give Rosa a bath before you put her to bed?"

"I think she's ready to fall asleep any minute. I'll just carry her up as soon as she is. Help yourself to as much as you want." She gave Nick a smile. "You earned it. Thanks a lot for your help today."

"Yeah Nicky, we couldn't have done it without you." Grissom agreed with her. "I can drive you back to your car in a few minutes. You on shift tonight?"

"No, I've got the night off. I can finish up helpin' you guys, then take the truck back for you."

"Thank you." The man said it again, giving his wife a smile as she stepped past him. She gave him a proud smile to congratulate him on putting the past behind him. But really, he was a lot more proud of himself. "Hey, where's Rosa gone?" He looked around for her, finding her in the front room, beginning to fall asleep. "C'mon, Princess." He slid his hands beneath her arms, lifting her against his chest.

"Daddy."

"Shh, shh," Adjusting her against his shoulder, Grissom carried her up the stairs to her new room, sitting her on the edge of her bed, so he could change her into her pyjamas. He placed her under her covers as soon as she was dressed, pressing a kiss to the centre of her forehead.

"I don't want to sleep." She tried to keep her eyes open, but it was proving to be a lot harder now that she was laying down.

"You look tired." Her father gently combed her hair behind her ear. "It's your first night in your new room too. It's always the best part of moving house for me. Your mother takes a while to get used to a new room. She says that the walls feel different or the location of the room in the house throws her off balance, but I always sleep like a baby the first night."

Rosa smiled up at him, holding his hands tightly in her own. "Did I used to sleep when I was a baby?"

"When we moved house?" He leant down to her level, remembering it like it was yesterday, "First night in a new house, you always slept straight through the night when you were a baby, especially when you were in our room. Your mother thought my snoring would keep you awake, but you found it a source of comfort. Your first night in your own room, you never slept through the night though. It didn't matter how many times we put you back to bed, you always got up again and crawled into our bed."

Rosa giggled softly, adjusting her fresh covers around her. "Night night, Daddy."

"Good night, sweetheart. I love you." He whispered to her, remaining put at her bedside for a moment, while she dozed off to sleep.

"Only two more boxes." Nick panted, carefully setting down the box he had in his hands on the soft carpet in the master bedroom. "It's nice in here." He fanned his t-shirt away from his chest, noticing the attached bathroom. "I used to dream of havin' a house like this when I was a kid."

"You still could." Sara grinned at him, dropping the plumped up pillows onto her freshly made bed. "I never even thought about having anything like this. Most of the other places we stayed have been apartments, condos or places where the front room, kitchen and all that were just one room. But this is an actual family home. And look at that back yard." She stepped up to her new bedroom window that had a perfect view of their large back garden. "And upstairs is huge. Besides our bedroom and the master bathroom, there's also a guest bedroom, with bathroom and three smaller bedrooms, with another bathroom down the end of the hall. No idea what we're going to put in half of them."

Nick chuckled softly, making his way towards the door. "It's a great place. I see why Grissom picked it. You'll have little Grissom grandkids runnin' around here one day."

"Maybe some little Stokes kids can come and stay too?" She smiled at him, reminding him, "It's still not too late, Nick."

"I think that ship has well and truly sailed, Sara. I'm alright though." He assured her, giving her a smile in return. "I've got more family than most people."

Sara gave him a wave, letting him get the last two boxes out of the truck, while she made her way across the hall to her daughter's room. She checked that she was fast asleep, before she went on search for her husband. She soon found him in the kitchen, setting up the coffee machine in the kitchen.

"Nice to see where your priorities lie."

Grissom smiled at her, explaining, "We're going to beat our record time of unpacking. I don't have any courses to teach for the next three days, so I'm gonna get this house unpacked and in order. Usually we don't finish until our first month in the place."

Sara chuckled in agreement, stepping aside from the door as Nick returned to collect the keys to the truck. "Thank you again, Nick. You know, we do actually have a spare bed that we could put together for you."

"No, it's okay. I was gonna meet up with my sister in the mornin'. Don't worry about drivin' me back either, I can grab a taxi back to my truck. Thanks for the offer though." Nick pressed a kiss to her cheek, giving her a hug goodbye. After he broke the hug, he reached his hand out to Grissom to shake his hand, getting pulled into a hug by the man.

"Thanks, Nick." Grissom hugged him tightly, wanting to properly thank him for everything he had ever done for them, but he felt a little embarrassed to thank the younger man for his sperm donation. "Rosa's asleep, but you can go say goodbye to her if you want."

"She's asleep, isn't she?" His wife looked at him surprised.

"Yeah... but you can if you want to, Nick."

"No it's alright." He shook his head, not wanting to disturb them for much longer. "I should get goin'." Nick turned for the door, leaving the family in peace. He used to envy Grissom for what he had, but now he was in admiration of the man.

"Daddy!" A little voice called down the stairs a few seconds later. "Daddy."

"Hang on." Grissom finished setting the coffee machine, pecking a kiss to his wife's cheek, before he hurried up the stairs. "What are you doing out of bed?" He lifted Rosa into his arms from the top of the stairs, carrying her back to her bedroom.

"I can't sleep."

"You've only been in here a few minutes. Why don't we read a story?" Gently placing her back in her bed, Grissom reached into the box beside her bed, lifting out one of her fairytale stories that always sent her off to sleep.

Rosa got herself comfortable, sticking her thumb in her mouth as she listened to the familiar tale.

"And they lived, happily ever after." Glancing up as soon as he finished the story, Grissom smiled as he spotted his wife stood against the door frame to their daughter's bedroom. "So, what do you think, Mommy? Are we going to live happily ever after here?"

For once, Sara didn't have to lie. They weren't in a foreign place, where everyone and everything was a stranger to them. She felt as though they had come full circle now and were finally home.

**The End**

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**Thank you so much for reading! Please let me know what you thought.**

**~ Holly**


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